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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

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http://www.archive.org/details/accountofcelebraOOIincrich 


The  Town  Hall 


An  Account  of  the 
CELEBRATION 
By  THE  TOWN  of 
LINCOLN,  MASS"' 
April  23rd,  1904^  of  the 
150th  Anniversary  of  its 
INCORPORATION 

1754-  1904 


Lincoln,  Mass'" 

PRINTED  FOR   THE  TOWN 

1905 


FOREWORD 

At  a  town  meeting  held  July  ii,  1903,  the  atten- 
tion of  the  town  was  called  to  the  fact  that  the  fol- 
lowing year  would  complete  a  century  and  a  half  of 
the  town's  corporate  existence.  The  following  resolu- 
tion was  unanimously  passed :  "  Resolved,  That  it  is 
appropriate  that  the  town  take  some  notice  of  the  one 
hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  its  incorporation 
next  year.  Therefore,  Voted,  That  the  Selectmen  and 
the  Committee  on  Claims  be  a  committee  to  consider 
the  matter  and  report  to  the  town  at  some  future 
meeting  some  plan  for  the  proper  observance  of  the 
day." 

At  the  annual  town  meeting  held  March  7, 
1904,  it  was  voted,  "That  the  whole  subject  be  left 
to  a  committee  consisting  of  the  Selectmen  and  the 
Committee  on  Claims  and  C.  Lee  Todd,  Walter 
W.  Johnson  and  Harry  Russ."  The  sum  of  five 
hundred  dollars  was  appropriated  for  the  use  of  the 
committee. 

The  celebration,  an  account  of  which  follows,  is 
of  great  importance  to  the  town  in  many  ways.  So 
far  as  the  records  show  or  memory  serves,  the  town 
has  never  before  celebrated  its  natal  day.  The  effort 
has  been  made  in  connection  with  this  occasion  to  pre- 
serve and  put  in  permanent  form  what  has  come  down 

iii 


F7-^ 
L7LS 


ivi5293a08 


THE   TOWN    OF   LINCOLN 

to  us  of  record  and  tradition  connected  with  the  history 
of  the  town  ;  and  it  is  desired  to  make  the  printing  of 
the  records,  vital  statistics,  and  other  original  matter 
of  value  now  in  the  town's  possession  relating  to  the 
first  century  of  its  existence  a  part  of  the  celebration 
of  this  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
town's  incorporation,  and  steps  to  this  end  have 
already  been  taken.  The  roll  of  the  men  of  Lincoln 
who  have  served  their  country  as  soldiers  has  also 
been  included  in  this  volume. 

The  committee  having  in  charge  the  arrangements 
for  the  observance  of  this  anniversary  have  sought  to 
make  the  exercises  of  interest  and  value  not  only  to 
those  who  took  part  in  them,  but  also  to  subsequent 
generations  through  having  the  proceedings  printed. 
The  illustrations  that  have  been  included  in  this 
volume  have  been  chosen  with  a  view  to  represent- 
ing the  Lincoln  of  the  past  as  well  as  of  the  present, 
though  all  of  the  houses  whose  pictures  are  here 
given  are  standing  to-day. 

The  celebration  began  at  daybreak  with  the  ring- 
ing of  the  church  bell  and  the  firing  of  cannon.  The 
day  could  not  have  been  more  propitious,  for  the 
sun  rose  clear  and,  though  there  was  no  rye  waving 
in  the  fields  as  by  tradition  it  was  on  the  memorable 
19th  of  April,  1775,  the  fields  were  green  and  the 
maples  and  elms  were  in  blossom.  The  village  street 
was  gay  with  streamers  of  lavender  and  white,  and 
"  Old  Glory  "  floated  above  the  trees  on  the  Com- 
mon.   The  day  brought  back  many  of  Lincoln's  sons 

iv 


FOREWORD 

and  daughters,  and  afforded  opportunity  for  the  ex- 
change of  friendly  greetings.  The  approach  of  the 
Governor  was  heralded  by  the  ringing  of  the  bell  and 
the  firing  of  cannon.  Before  the  appointed  hour 
arrived  the  church  was  filled  with  townspeople  and 
others  from  neighboring  towns,  and  as  the  Gov- 
ernor and  the  others  who  were  to  take  part  in  the 
exercises  of  the  afternoon  entered,  the  audience  rose 
and  stood  until  they  were  seated  on  the  platform. 
The  program  given  herewith  was  then  carried  out  as 
arranged. 

For  the  Banquet  and  the  dancing  the  interior  of 
the  Town  Hall  had  been  festooned  with  long  strips 
of  bunting,  lavender,  white,  and  yellow,  the  colonial 
colors,  with  groups  of  Japanese  lanterns.  A  colored 
sketch  of  a  Puritan  man  and  maiden  placed  in  front 
of  the  gallery  recalled  the  aspect  of  our  ancestors  of 
1754.  A  long  table  was  spread  upon  the  platform,  at 
which  were  seated  the  Toastmaster,  his  Excellency 
Governor  Bates,  the  orator  of  the  day,  members  of 
the  boards  of  selectmen  of  Lincoln,  Lexington,  Con- 
cord, and  Weston,  and  others  who  were  to  speak. 
The  entire  floor  was  occupied  by  long  tables  made 
bright  with  roses,  carnations,  and  green  vines.  Two 
hundred  and  forty-three  persons  sat  down  to  the 
Banquet.  A  band  of  music  placed  in  the  gallery 
played  at  intervals  during  the  supper.  A  mark  of 
special  distinction  in  the  form  of  a  blue  ribbon  badge 
was  conferred  upon  all  persons  who  were  descendants 
of  families  living  in  Lincoln  when  the  town  was  in- 

V 


THE   TOWN    OF   LINCOLN 

corporated,  and  formed  a  conspicuous  feature  of  the 
celebration. 

At  the  close  of  the  after-dinner  speaking  the  hall 
was  made  ready  for  dancing;  the  band  moved  to 
the  platform  ;  the  gallery  filled  with  onlookers  ;  and 
soon  the  floor  was  taken  possession  of  by  the  young 
people,  who  made  the  most  of  the  time  that  was  left 
until  the  hour  of  midnight  and  the  entrance  of  the 
Sabbath  brought  the  festivities  of  the  day  to  a  close. 


CONTENTS 

Program         .......  xi 

Invocation         .......  5 

Anthem          .......  7 

Words  of  Welcome             .....  9 

"  A   Milestone   Planted  "  —  Address   of   Hon. 

Charles  Francis  Adams          .         .         .  12 

Appendix            .         .         .         .         ...         •  1^3 

Anniversary  Poem          .....  147 

Anthem 156 

The  Banquet 

Address  by  Mr.  Storey           .         .         .         .  161 

Remarks  by  Governor  Bates     .         .         •         .164 

Mr.  Adams           .         .         .         .  168 

Mr.  Baker     .....  169 

Mr.  Flint 173 

Mr.  Farrar 177 

Mr.  Bradley       .         .         .         .  178 

Dr.  Emerson           ....  182 

Dr.  DeNormandie      .         .         .  187 

Mr.  Hodges    .          ....  191 

Letters 

From  Mr.  Smith    ......  197 

Mr.  Stearns 200 


Notes  on  Illustrations         .         .         .         .         213 
Roll  of  Soldiers 235 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  Town  Hall 

View  of  Street  looking  north 

View  of  Street  looking  south 

The  William  Hartwell  House 

The  Samuel  Hartwell  House 

The  Farrar  House   . 

The  Codman  House 

The  Garfield  House  . 

The  Nelson  House 

The  Flint  House 

The  Dr.  Russell  House 

The  Foster  House     . 

The  Dr.  Stearns  House 

The  Hoar  House 

The  Eveleth  House 

The  Smith  House 

The  Adams  House 

Brendan    . 

The  Paul  Revere  Tablet 


Frontispiece 
I 

9 
24 
38 
52 
66 
80 

94 
108 
122 
136 
150 
164 

178 

192 
206 
220 

233 


ANNIVERSARY  PROGRAM 


ONE    HUNDRED    AND 
FIFTIETH    ANNIVERSARY 

OF   THE 

INCORPORATION 

OF  THE 

TOWN    OF    LINCOLN 

SATURDAY,  APRIL   TWENTY-THIRD 
NINETEEN    HUNDRED    AND    FOUR 


program 

2.30  p.  M.     IN  FIRST  PARISH  CHURCH 

ORGAN  PRELUDE  Mrs.  Charles  H.  Trask 

PRAYER  Rev.  Edward  E.  Bradley 

ANTHEM,  "Jehovah  Reigns"  Mendelssohn 

WORDS  OF  WELCOME  Mr.  Charles  S.  Smith 

(Chairman  of  Selectmen) 

ADDRESS  lion.  Charles  Francis  Adams 

HYMN  Words  by  Mrs.  Sarah  PhilHps  Bradley 

Tunc  :  "  Park  Street  " 

ANNIVERSARY  POEM  Mr.  Julius  E.  Eveleth 

ANTHEM,   **  God  of  Our  Fathers  '*  Schnecker 

BENEDICTION  Rev.  Henry  C.  Cunningham 

5. JO  p.  M.     IN  BEMIS  HALL 

BANQUET  Mr.  Moorfield  Storey,  Toastmaster 

8.30  P.  M.     IN  BEMIS  HALL 

DANCING 


HYMN 

Sarah  Phillips  Bradley 

O  God,  as  this  the  natal  day 

Of  our  fair  town  we  celebrate. 
We  lift  our  hearts  to  thee  and  pray 

That  on  thy  guidance  we  may  wait. 

Our  fathers  crossed  the  stormy  main. 
The  pathless  wilderness  they  trod. 

They  sought  not  any  earthly  gain. 
But  freedom  here  to  worship  God. 

Two  hundred  years  ago  and  more 
To  this  fair  hillside's  sunny  slope 

Came  sturdy  men  who  hardship  bore 
With  dauntless  heart  and  steadfast  hope. 

They  toiled  and  suffered,  fought  and  won. 

Nor  counted  any  cost  too  high 
That  they  may  hand  from  sire  to  son 

A  heritage  of  liberty. 

O  God,  our  fathers*  guide  and  strength 

Through  troublous  years  of  storm  and  strife. 

Thou  who  to  our  loved  land  at  length 
Hast  brought  a  prosperous  peaceful  life  ; 

Grant  us,  the  sons  of  noble  sires 

Who  in  thy  house  to-day  have  met. 

To  keep  alive  thine  altar  fires, 

*«  Lest  we  forget,  lest  we  forget !  " 

I 


ANNIVERSARY  COMMITTEE 

CHARLES   S.   SMITH 
EDWARD   F.   FLINT 
ANTHONY   J.    DOHERTY 
CHARLES   FRANCIS   ADAMS 
MOORFIELD   STOREY 
JULIUS   E.   EVELETH 
WALTER   W.   JOHNSON 
HARRY   RUSS 
C.   LEE  TODD 


I 


ANNIVERSARY    PROCEEDINGS 


INVOCATION 

Rev.  Edward  E.  Bradley 

Almighty  and  ever-living  God,  thou  who  art  the 
God  of  our  fathers,  we  avouch  thee  to  be  our  God, 
and  desire  to  acknowledge  thee  in  all  our  ways.  As 
we  have  come  together  to-day  to  do  honor  to  the 
men  and  women  who  have  lived  here  before  us, 
and  especially  to  commemorate  the  virtues  and  the 
achievements  of  those  who  first  settled  the  town, 
we  pray  that  their  character  may  be  so  clearly  and 
justly  set  before  us  as  to  call  forth  afresh  our  ad- 
miration and  our  gratitude.  We  thank  thee  for  the 
priceless  heritage  of  our  New  England  ancestry. 
We  glory  in  the  high  motives  that  brought  our 
fathers  to  these  shores  ;  in  their  labors  and  strug- 
gles and  sacrifices  to  secure  religious  freedom  and 
political  independence  ;  in  the  wisdom  with  which 
they  laid  deep  and  broad  and  sure  the  foundations 
of  our  national  government.  We  pray  that  our  re- 
membrance of  these  men  to-day,  and  of  the  prin- 
ciples for  which  they  lived  and  died,  may  serve  to 
sober  our  minds,  to  elevate  our  thoughts,  to  send 
us  forth  to  live  in  our  day  and  generation  with  the 
same  high  consecration  of  purpose  and  of  deed  that 
actuated  them. 

May  thy  blessing  and  favor  be  upon  our  beloved 

5 


THE   TOWN    OF    LINCOLN 

Commonwealth,  and  upon  all  within  her  borders 
who  seek  to  do  justice  and  to  establish  righteous- 
ness. Finally  grant  us  all,  we  beseech  thee,  the 
wisdom  and  strength  so  to  fulfil  the  tasks  thou  hast 
given  us  to  perform  in  town  and  in  State  that  we 
can  pray  in  all  good  conscience,  "  Establish  thou 
the  work  of  our  hands  upon  us  ;  yea,  the  work  of 
our  hands  establish  thou  it."  And  thy  Name  shall 
have  all  the  praise,  now  and  forever.    Amen. 


ANTHEM 

JEHOVAH   REIGNS 

Jehovah  reigns !  Mighty  is  He,  and   strong  His 
arm  ! 

Come  forth,  ye  hosts !  with  Him  to  lead. 

What  foe  shall  we  fear  ?  What  harm  ? 

Yes,  He  doth  reign ;  Power  supreme  is  His,  and 
Right, 

March  on  for  Him,  exult  in  Him, 

And  sing  with  the  Hosts  of  Light. 

In  faith  stand  firm,  victory  waits  for  all 

Who  obey  and  answer  Him  when  He  doth  call, 

Our  God  doth  reign.    Power  supreme  He  holds  and 
Right. 

Arise !  come  forth  !  Exult  in  Him,  rejoice  with  the 
Hosts  of  Light. 

Oh,  His  mercy  endures ;  He  is  Love,  He  is  Love, 

All  the  earth  doth  rejoice  in  His  care. 

Field  and  flower,  hill  and  vale,  and  the  sea,  and  the 
sky. 

Are  the  wonders  that  He  doth  prepare. 

Infinite  Power  !  ever  supreme.  He  is  glorious  ! 

Humble  are  we  children  of  earth.  He  is  victorious  ! 

Let  praise  unto  His  throne  be  ascending,  from  mor- 
tals who  adore. 

Let  the  Light  of  His  Mansion  supernal 

7 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

Shine  upon  us,  blessed  by  Him,  ever  eternal ! 

Let  all  He  has  created  acknowledge  His  name  for- 
ever more. 

The  flowers  obeying  His  own  command, 

Their  brightness  give  to  adorn  the  land. 

The  sun*s  bright  rays  on  earth's  green  verdure  shine, 

To  aid  the  grain,  to  cheer  the  spreading  vine. 

The  year  He  crowns  with  bounteous  yield; 

His  watchful  care  doth  spread  o'er  hill  and  field. 

Our  God  doth  reign ;  Power  supreme  is  His,  and 
Right, 

March  on  for  Him,  exult  in  Him,  and  sing  with  the 
Hosts  of  Light. 

In  faith  stand  firm;  valiant  ones,  victory  waits  for 
all 

Who  obey  and  answer  Him  when  He  doth  call. 

Yes,  He  doth  reign  over  the  world  and  all  that  live. 

Of  life  and  light,  the  Source  supreme. 

What  praise  can  we  mortals  give ! 

And  lo  !  in  all  His  hand  hath  made. 

His  marvellous  wisdom  there  is  e'er  displayed. 

Earth,  sea,  and  air  proclaim  His  word. 

While  all  obey  the  voice  of  Him,  their  Lord. 

Jehovah  reigns  !  Mighty  is  He  and  strong  His  arm  ! 

Yes,  He  doth  reign.  Supreme  is  He  and  right. 

Arise,  ye  hosts,  exult  in  Him !  Arise,  ye  hosts,  to 
praise  again  ! 

Jehovah  reigns  with  power  supreme !  He  reigns  ! 
He  reigns ! 


Fiew  of  Street  looking  South 
(P-  215) 


WORDS   OF   WELCOME 

By  Mr.  Charles  S.  Smith,  Chairman  of  Selectmen 

Friends  and  Fellow  Citizens  :  We  meet  to-day 
to  celebrate  the  150th  anniversary  of  the  incorpo- 
ration of  this  town.  It  is  my  privilege,  in  behalf 
of  the  town,  to  extend  to  you  all  a  most  cordial 
welcome,  and  to  express  the  hope  that  the  day  will 
be  to  you  all  both  pleasant  and  profitable.  As  we 
refresh  our  memories  with  a  review  of  the  early 
history  of  the  town,  and  study  the  characters  and 
lives  of  the  early  settlers  and  incorporators,  we  shall 
be  anew  impressed  with  the  value  of  our  inheritance, 
and  I  trust  with  the  duty  imposed  upon  us  of  trans- 
mitting it  unimpaired  to  our  children. 

We  meet  to-day  in  this  house  erected  on  the  site 
of  the  first  meeting-house,  which  was  used  for  all 
public  functions :  religious,  political,  and  social,  for 
more  than  eighty  years.  We  can  but  admire  the 
wisdom  and  good  sense  of  the  fathers,  first,  in  choos- 
ing homes  on  these  beautiful  hillside  slopes  and 
fertile  meadows,  and  then  selecting  this  matchless 
site,  accessible  to  all  for  the  preaching  of  the  gospel 
and  the  worship  of  God,  which  things  were  of  fun- 
damental importance  in  their  life.  The  foundations 
on  which  our  fathers  built  were  good  and  broad. 
We  may  broaden  them,  but  can  we  better  them  ? 

9 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

Besides  good  common  sense,  the  incorporators  of 
this  town  had  another  trait,  indispensable  then,  and 
indispensable  now,  if  true  success  is  to  be  attained, 
—  perseverance.  This  trait  is  forcibly  illustrated  by 
the  fact  that  for  twenty  years  they  labored  to  have 
this  town  set  off  from  the  towns  of  Lexington, 
Concord,  and  Weston  as  a  separate  municipality. 
Beginning  in  1734,  and  partially  succeeding  in  the 
intervening  years,  it  was  not  till  1754  that  *their 
labors  were  rewarded,  and  a  separate  town,  named 
"  Lincoln,"  became  an  accomplished  fact,  a  blessed 
reality ;  blessed  to  them,  and  we  trust  to  all  suc- 
ceeding generations. 

Besides  the  two  traits  already  alluded  to,  viz., 
their  regard  for  the  worship  of  God,  and  their  per- 
sistence in  seeking  political  independence,  there  was 
manifest  among  them  a  high  degree  of  public  spirit, 
first  forcibly  illustrated  by  the  gift  by  a  few  men  of 
the  first  Meeting  House  to  the  Precinct.  Note  the 
language  of  the  givers  : 

"  We,  the  subscribers,  inhabitants  of  the  Precinct 
set  off  from  Concord,  Lexington  and  Weston,  being 
desirous  to  promote  the  public  preaching  of  the 
word  of  God  in  said  Precinct,  and  willing  for  the 
ease  of  others,  the  inhabitants  of  said  Precinct,  to 
take  upon  ourselves  more  than  our  proportion  of 
the  great  charge  of  setting  up  the  public  worship 
of  God  in  said  Precinct,  have  at  our  own  proper  cost 
and  charge,  erected  a  house  for  the  public  use  of 
the  Precinct,  and  have,  in  part,  finished  the  same, 
which  house  standeth  near  the  centre  of  said  Pre- 

10 


WORDS   OF  WELCOME 

cinct  and  is  made  use  of  as  a  public  meeting-house, 
—  do,  by  these  presents,  freely,  fully  and  absolutely 
give,  grant,  alienate,  convey  and  confirm  the  said 
house  to  said  Precinct."  We  may  well  believe  that 
it  was  a  full,  free  offering  of  love  to  the  people. 
These  traits  have  ever  been  exemplified  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  town,  and  may  the  day  be  far  removed 
when  they  cease  to  exist  and  rule  in  the  community. 

The  town  has  ever  received  the  gifts  of  her  sons 
with  gratitude,  whether  of  money,  buildings,  or  self- 
denying  service,  and  has  always  reciprocated  as  far 
as  possible.  It  is  recorded  that  for  the  valuable 
services  rendered  by  the  Hon.  Chambers  Russell, 
who  gave  to  the  town  its  name :  "  That  Chambers 
Russell,  Esq.,  have  liberty  to  choose  his  pew  in  the 
Precinct  Meeting  House  where  he  pleases,  and 
build  it  when  he  pleases."  I  doubt  not,  Honored 
Sir,  that  a  like  privilege  would  be  freely  granted  to 
you  for  the  valued  and  valuable  services  you  have 
rendered  to  the  town. 

I  take  pleasure  in  presenting  our  esteemed  towns- 
man, Hon.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  Orator  of  the 


Mr.  Adams  then  proceeded  to  deliver  the  following  ad- 
dress. 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED' 

And  this  day  shall  be  unto  you  for  a  memorial ;  and  ye  shall  keep 
it  a  feast  to  the  Lord  throughout  your  generations;  ye  shall  keep  it 
a  feast  by  an  ordinance  for  ever.  —  Exodus  xii,  1 4. 

Why  are  we  here  gathered  ?  Why,  old  and  young, 
have  we  left  plow  and  counter  and  desk,  —  the  fur- 
row, the  school  and  the  office,  —  proclaiming  high- 
holiday  in  Lincoln,  and  thus  —  men,  women  and 
children  —  met  under  a  common  roof-tree  ?  The 
answer  to  this  question,  put  at  the  threshold  of  the 
day's  observances,  will  give  its  character  to  my  ad- 
dress, and  upon  it  impose  limitations.  It  is  Lincoln's 
birthday !  —  the  one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  its  existence  as  a  town.  We  have  met  to  com- 
memorate the  event.  We  are  here  to  plant. a  mile- 
stone,—  a  memorial  for  other  times  and  subsequent 
generations.  It  will  mark  the  ending  of  one  cycle 
in  our  existence  as  a  community,  and  the  beginning 
of  another. 

A  dozen  years  ago  I  was  called  upon,  where  I  then 
lived,  to  bear  the  burden  of  the  day,  so  far  as  the 
preparation   of  the  conventional  address  was  con- 

*  This  address,  considerably  abbreviated,  occupied  in  delivery  one 
hour  and  fifteen  minutes.  It  was  subsequently  revised.  The  portions 
omitted  in  delivery  are  here  included  j  and  very  considerable  additions 
have  also  been  made  to  it. 

12 


A  MILESTONE   PLANTED 

cerned,  on  a  like  occasion.  It  was  at  Quincy,  not  my 
own  birthplace,  but  where  I  and  mine  originated, 
where  —  bone  of  its  bone,  flesh  of  its  flesh  —  we  for 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  had  lived,  and,  dying, 
gone  back  to  the  soil.  Responding,  though  with 
extreme  reluctance,  to  the  call  thus  made  upon  me, 
I  took  occasion  to  comment  on  the  character  of  such 
commemorations, — their  sameness  of  tone,  their 
self-laudation  and  lack  of  individuality,  only  exceeded 
in  weariness  by  their  constant  succession.  The  his- 
torical deliverances  customary  in  such  cases,  I  not 
untruly  asserted,  were  made  up  largely  of  ancestor 
worship,  combined  with  the  ill-considered  laudation 
of  a  state  of  things,  social,  material  and  educational, 
which,  if  brought  back  and  imposed  upon  us  now, 
would  be  pronounced  unendurable.  Of  those  decep- 
tive, as  well  as  imaginary,  portrayals,  I  declared  I  had 
both  heard  and  read  more  than  enough.  Like  most 
conventional  observances,  they  at  one  time  had  served 
a  purpose,  and  a  useful  purpose ;  for  in  them,  un- 
consciously quite  as  much  as  with  intent,  was  recorded 
much  of  historical  worth,  which  otherwise  would 
probably  have  perished,  —  not  only  local  traditions, 
personal  memories,  the  story  of  the  quickly  forgotten 
past,  its  friendships,  its  feuds,  its  great  aspirations 
and  its  small  accomplishment,  but  phases  of  thought 
and  expression.  Records  of  the  time  gone  by,  those 
discourses  and  addresses  were  also  mirrors  of  what 
was  then  in  vogue.  This,  however,  was  in  another 
age  of  the  world,  —  the  days  which  knew  not  news- 
papers or  periodicals,  the  town  history  or  the  histori- 

13 


THE  TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

cal  society.  But,  though  that  period  is  gone,  the 
commemoration  address  abides  ;  and  so  the  old  straw 
is  everlastingly  threshed  over,  though  few  indeed  are 
the  grains  of  wheat  resultant  therefrom.  Each  age 
has,  or  ought  to  have,  some  mode  of  expression 
peculiar  to  itself.  The  occasional  historical  discourse 
and  the  formal  memorial  address  were  of  an  age  that 
is  past.    Let  them  go  with  it. 

He,  I  admit,  would  be  over  bold  who,  standing, 
in  this  year  1904,  on  the  threshold  of  a  century, 
should  undertake  to  forecast  the  form  of  expression 
to  which  the  century  will,  in  its  full  maturity,  addict 
itself;  but  I  do  not  think  it  will  be  platform  oratory. 
That  was  characteristic  of  the  nineteenth  century,  as 
pulpit  deliverance  was  characteristic  of  the  eighteenth; 
and,  speaking  frankly  as  well  as  honestly,  though  not 
without  study  of  both,  I  do  not  know  which  of  the 
two  modes  of  expression,  taken  as  wholes,  was  the 
drearier  and  the  emptier.  The  theological  literature 
of  the  eighteenth  century  is  vast,  and,  in  largest  part, 
devoid  both  of  interest  and  value  ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  retrospect  reveals  a  shallowness  and  affectation 
of  thought,  combined  with  a  tinsel  of  rhetoric,  about 
the  platform  oratory  of  the  nineteenth  century,  which 
goes  far  in  a  comparative  way  to  a  rehabilitation  of 
what  went  before. 

Thus  I  felt  then,  so  I  feel  now ;  and  so,  twelve 
years  ago,  I  argued  to  a  friend  of  mine,  —  one  of  the 
antique  Quincy  stock.  He,  however,  took  a  differ- 
ent view  of  the  subject.  Picking  me  up  at  once,  and 
assenting  to  much  of  my  criticism,  he  refused   to 

14 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

accept  my  conclusions,  arguing  that  it  was  wholly 
inexpedient  on  these  occasions  to  dispense  with  the 
time-honored  address.  It  was  he  who  then  made 
use  of  that  milestone  simile.  In  Quincy,  and  along 
the  old  Coast-road,  as  it  was  once  called,  running 
from  Salem  through  Boston  to  Plymouth,  we  had  a 
number  of  those  landmarks,  bearing  upon  their  faces 
eighteenth  century  distances,  dates  and  initials  ;  and, 
with  them,  my  friend  and  I  were  familiar.  Those 
old  colonial  way-metes,  rough-hewn  at  the  begin- 
ning and  now  furrowed  and  gnawed  by  the  tooth  of 
time,  —  as  they  stood  there  aslant  at  the  roadside, 
with  inscriptions  no  longer  wholly  legible  through 
moss  growth  and  weather  stain,  —  had  marked  for 
generations  of  travellers  the  distances  traversed.  And 
so  the  printed  pages  to  which  I  so  slightingly  alluded 
told  for  all  future  time  of  some  point  a  community 
had  reached  in  a  journey  knowing  no  end.  Here 
those  composing  that  community  had  paused  for  a 
space,  and,  resting  in  their  march,  cast  a  glance  back- 
ward over  the  road  by  which  they  had  come,  and 
forward  over  that  yet  to  be  traversed.  "  At  such  a 
time,"  my  old  friend,  now  become  my  mentor,  went 
on,  "  we  are,  or  ought  to  be,  a  world  unto  ourselves. 
Why  take  thought,  on  this  our  birthday,  of  other 
people,  or  their  kindred  observances,  or  burden  our- 
selves because  of  posterity  ?  What  matters  it  who 
are  looking  on,  or  what  to-morrow's  *  Times '  or 
*  Herald  *  may  have  to  say  of  that  now  taking  place  ? 
Those  after  us  here  dwelling  will,  to  remote  gen- 
erations even,  give  heed  to  the  utterances  of  to-day  ; 

15 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

Its  record  will,  by  them,  not  be  forgotten.  Let  that 
suffice  !  This  is  our  anniversary.  Thus  far  have  we 
got  in  our  journey  ;  and,  throwing  off  our  burdens 
for  the  moment,  we  here  raise  a  memorial  such  as 
it  is,  which  to  those  —  be  they  many  or  few  —  who 
care  to  observe,  will  tell  them  that  here  we  rested  as 
we  passed  a  centennial." 

On  consideration  I  had  to  admit  that  my  friend 
had  the  best  of  the  argument.  His  was  the  saner,  the 
more  sensible  view.  So  I  helped  plant  that  Quincy 
milestone ; '  and,  recalling  the  lesson  then  received, 
I  am  here  to  plant  the  Lincoln  milestone  to-day. 
But  the  circumstances  are  not  the  same.  Then  I 
spoke  as  one  to  the  manner  born,  —  I  was,  as  I  al- 
ways had  been,  part  of  the  halted  column.  Of  the 
town  family,  its  names,  its  localities,  its  traditions, 
were  familiar  to  me.  It  is  not  so  here;  it  never  can 
be  so.  I  may  be  a  useful  citizen  in  Lincoln;  and 
hereafter,  as  for  ten  years  past,  it  may  be  my  home. 
I  hope  it  will  be.  But  here  I  never  can  be  other 
than  a  new-comer,  —  at  most  and  best,  a  child  of 
adoption.  As  such,  I  am  conscious  I  speak  to-day; 
and  what  I  say  needs  must  lack  that  insight,  that 
sympathy,  that  absorption  of  the  individual  in  the 
community  possible  only  amid  those  surroundings 
where  "  Heaven,"  as  Wordsworth  tells  us,  "lies  about 
us  in  our  infancy."    So  I  beseech  your  patience  while, 

«  The  Centennial  Milestone:  an  Address  in  Commemoration  of  the 
One  Hundredth  Anniversary  ofthe  Incorporation  of  Quincy,  Massachu- 
setts, delivered  July  4,  1892.  Concerning  the  friend  "of  the  antique 
Quincy  stock,"  see  p.  44  ofthe  address  above  referred  to. 

16 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

not  wholly  of  Lincoln,  I  speak  about  Lincoln,  to 
Lincoln. 

I  shall  indulge  in  no  generalities  or  abstractions, 
much  less  attempt  flights  of  eloquence.  I  propose 
to  talk  of  Lincoln,  and  of  Lincoln  only  ;  and  that  in 
simple  fashion.  But  the  audience  I  address  is  not 
here;  so  far  from  being  here,  it  is  remote,  as  yet 
unborn.  The  message  framed  to-day  is  to  the  Lin- 
coln of  the  next  century.  At  the  earliest  it  is  to  the 
Lincoln  of  1954,  —  those  who  will  then  gather  on 
this  hillside  to  celebrate  the  bi-centennial  of  the  town. 
It  is  not  often  in  these  days  of  the  printing-press 
and  tumult  of  tongues  that  any  one  can  nourish  even 
a  hope,  no  matter  how  delusive,  that  what  he  says  or 
puts  on  paper  will  be  remembered  to-morrow.  In- 
stant oblivion,  as  a  rule,  awaits.  But  the  proceedings 
of  to-day  are  exceptional ;  they  will  surely  be  recalled. 
The  interest  in  what  we  say  or  do  is  not  widespread, 
—  indeed,  it  is  confined  to  a  very  narrow  circle ;  — 
and  yet  what  we  this  day  do  and  say  will  abide. 
Within  that  circle,  the  passage  of  time  will  make  it 
more  curious,  more  interesting,  ever  more  perma- 
nent. It  also  will  be  the  time-eaten,  weather-stained 
inscription  on  a  moss-covered  milestone. 

The  better  to  realize  this,  let  us  put  ourselves  in 
the  place  of  those  who  are  gone,  —  those  we  to-day 
commemorate.  To  dwellers  in  it  the  present  is  al- 
together commonplace,  and  its  daily  environment, 
as  distinguished  from  its  exceptional  events,  is 
deemed  uninteresting.  It  was  so  in  1754;  it  is  so 
in    1904;  it  will   be  so   in  2054.    What,  in   1754, 

17 


THE   TOWN    OF    LINCOLN 

their  vision  dwelt  on  every  day  and  all  the  time  was 
so  familiar  that  it  never  occurred  to  those  then 
living  here  that  a  generation  to  which  it  would  all 
be  remote  and  strange  and  curiously  quaint  would 
presently  people  the  soil.  So  they  made  no  record. 
Yet  what  they  did  not  dream  of,  long  since  came  to 
pass  ;  and,  to-day,  there  is  for  us  no  Lincoln  start- 
ing-post !  Vainly  we  seek  even  a  vestige  of  the 
landmark. 

While  we  can  send  a  message  forward,  we  cannot 
send  one  back.  But  suppose  for  a  moment  we  could, 
—  suppose  that  our  voice  could  reach  Chambers 
Russell,  John  Hoar,  Benjamin  Brown  and  Stephen 
Weston,  gathered  at  the  house  of  Edward  Flint, 
close  to  this  spot,  on  the  26th  of  May,  1746,  there 
and  then  holding  the  first  precinct  meeting,  —  what 
would  our  message  be  ?  If  we  can  frame  that  mes- 
sage, we  can  probably  form  some  idea  of  the  similar 
message  our  descendants  in  2054  would  be  likely  to 
send  back  to  us  here.  Unquestionably,  we  would 
say  to  Chambers  Russell,  and  the  rest,  including  the 
Rev.  William  Lawrence, — "Tell  us  of  yourselves 
and  of  the  Lincoln  in  which  you  lived.  We  do  not 
care  to  listen  to  sermons  on  dead  and  forgotten 
theological  issues,  to  disquisitions  on  the  rights  of 
man,  or  to  your  conception  of  the  everlasting  veri- 
ties; —  we  want  to  know  about  you,  and  the  local- 
ity in  which  you  lived  and  had  your  being,  —  your 
homes  and  your  meeting-house,  your  school,  with 
its  text-books,  your  church  and  its  pastor,  the  roads, 
the  means  of  conveyance,  the  clothes  you  wore,  the 

18 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

social  life  you  led,  and  the  bones  of  contention 
amongst  you  !  You  once  lived,  and  lived  here  !  Of 
you  and  yours  not  a  vestige  remains  save  a  few  old 
houses,  and  the  stones  in  the  village  burying-ground 
behind  our  new  town  hall ;  not  a  garment,  scarcely 
a  utensil  or  book,  hardly  a  printed  record.  What 
you  thought  the  commonplace  of  every-day  life  the 
passage  of  years  has  made  quaint.  Tell  us,  then,  of 
yourselves  and  of  the  old-time,  the  original  Lincoln, 
—  long  since  dead  and  buried  and  forgotten." 

As  it  is  with  us,  so,  rest  assured,  will  it  be  with 
our  posterity.  That  fact  dictates  the  character  of 
the  inscription  to  be  cut  on  the  milestone  we  now 
plant. 

And  first  of  that  forgotten  past,  —  that  remote 
heretofore  with  which  there  is  no  connection,  whether 
telephonic  or  spiritual.  To  our  posterity  it  will  be 
even  more  shadowy  than  it  is  to  us  ;  and  to  try  to 
revive  it,  —  to  inject  such  degree  of  life  as  is  possible 
into  those  long-buried  bones,  a  ray  of  animation  into 
eyes  for  more  than  a  century  glazed  and  sightless, 
is  part  of  the  task  to  which  I  to-day  must  address 
myself. 

In  the  case  of  every  Massachusetts  town  the  past 
divides  itself  into  two  portions,  the  prehistoric  and 
the  historic,  —  the  last  a  mere  fringe  hanging  on  the 
garment,  yet  in  great  degree  conditioned  on  the  first. 
Our  records  of  Lincoln,  —  our  traditions  even,  are 
but  of  yesterday.  They  go  back  only  to  1744,  or 
possibly  a  century  or  so  more  at  most,  —  covering 
the  lives  of  five,  or,  perhaps,  eight,  generations  of 

19 


THE   TOWN    OF   LINCOLN 

children  of  the  soil.  Beyond  and  behind  stretches 
the  vast  unknown,  a  very  Sahara  of  time,  to  the  his- 
torian forever  a  sealed  book,  and  only  in  degree  and 
through  patient  study  explorable  by  the  geologist.  It 
reaches  back  to  that  remote  ice  age  only  in  traces  vis- 
ible, but  which  gave  to  all  the  region  hereabout  the 
character  it  bears  to-day,  dictating  in  advance  for 
each  locality  the  products  of  its  soil,  the  vocations  of 
its  people,  and  the  lines  of  its  thoroughfares ;  —  so, 
commerce  was  decreed  for  Boston,  mills  for  Lowell 
and  Lawrence,  agriculture  for  Sudbury,  Concord  and 
Belmont,  a  railroad  for  the  valley  of  the  Charles,  and 
forests  of  oak  and  pine  for  Lincoln.  In  our  homes, 
our  vocations  and  our  journeyings,  —  in  the  field  and 
on  the  road,  in  locating  a  way  or  a  mill,  or  choosing 
a  site  for  a  house,  we  do  but  follow  those  lines,  — 
whether  of  least  resistance,  or  of  grace  and  beauty, 
—  which  were  laid  down  for  us  here  in  New  Eng- 
land long  before  the  idea  of  the  pyramids  got  a  lodg- 
ment in  the  brains  of  the  Pharaohs,  or  the  legend 
of  Eden  assumed  shape  in  the  imagination  of  the 
pilgrims  of  Horeb. 

In  his  sketch  of  the  history  of  Lincoln,  Mr. 
Wheeler  makes  this  statement :  "  The  hill  on  which 
the  [Lincoln]  meeting-house  stands  is  four  hundred 
and  seventy  feet  above  high-water  mark  at  Boston, 
and  though  there  are  other  hills  of  greater  magni- 
tude, it  is  believed  to  be  the  highest  land  in  [Middle- 
sex] county  whereon  men  have  built  themselves 
habitations.  .  .  .  Brooks  which  are  tributaries  to 
the  Concord,  Charles  and  Shawshine  rise  and  flow 

10 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

out,  but  not  a  tubful  of  water  comes  into  the  town 
from  any  source  except  the  rains  and  dews  of  heaven." 
Here,  in  fewest  possible  words,  is  the  whole  secret 
told  of  the  early  settlement  and  slow  development  of 
Lincoln.  They  resulted  from  natural  conditions; 
and,  talking  of  the  history  of  Lincoln,  is  it  not  star- 
tling as  well  as  curious  to  reflect  that,  of  the  seventy 
or  eighty  centuries  which  have  elapsed  since  the  nat- 
ural features  of  the  township  became  exactly  what, 
we  see  them  to-day,  a  little  less  than  two  cover  the 
history  which  interests  us  and  which  we  so  minutely 
investigate,  —  the  other  sixty-eight  or  seventy-eight 
centuries,  a  few  less  or  many  more,  are  an  absolute 
blank !  Yet,  through  them  all,  Lincoln  hill  and 
Sandy  Pond,  the  Walden  woods  and  Fairhaven-bay, 
were  as  to-day  they  are.  We  men  only  are  here  as 
of  yesterday  ! 

When  Lincoln  was  incorporated,  —  in  those  days 
of  Chambers  Russell  and  William  Lawrence,  John 
Hoar  and  Edward  Flint,  —  the  word  geology  had 
no  well-defined  meaning.  The  scientific  study  of  the 
earth,  and  of  the  physical  changes  it  has  undergone, 
had  not  begun.  Indeed,  the  first  chapter  of  the  book 
of  Genesis  disposed  of  that  matter,  and  disposed  of 
it  summarily.  It  was  all  delightfully  simple.  The 
earth  was  six  thousand  years  old ;  it  was  created  in 
six  days,  and  in  the  form  in  which  we  now  know  it. 
To  question  this  was  impious.  The  deluge  was  ac- 
cepted as  an  undeniable  historic  fact ;  but  the  actual 
occurrence  of  an  ice  age  was  a  thing  as  yet  undreamed 
of  even  by  the  most  advanced  and  sceptical  of  scien- 

21 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

tists.  Since  1754,  and  almost  entirely  within  the  last 
half  of  the  period,  the  geologist  has  revealed  a  few 
facts  which,  while  interesting  in  themselves,  are  still 
more  interesting  in  the  possibility  of  future  discov- 
eries they  suggest.  But  upon  the  basis  of  what  is 
already  known,  the  remoter  past  may,  for  Lincoln 
as  for  other  like  dots  on  the  globe's  surface,  be  to 
a  degree  restored.  During  that  remoter  period  pre- 
ceding the  last  ice  age,  a  period  to  be  measured  by 
aeons  and  cycles  and  not  by  centuries  or  millenaries 
even,  all  the  region  hereabout,  not  Middlesex  merely 
but  Massachusetts  and  New  England  as  well,  were 
in  the  formative  stage ;  —  then  the  rocks  were  mixed 
and  hardened  below  the  surface ;  and  the  surface  it- 
self was  slowly  shaped  by  rain  and  the  flow  of  rivers, 
until  its  general  form  was  not  greatly  unlike  that  of 
to-day.  Instead  of  being  some  sixteen  miles  from  the 
ocean,  Lincoln  is  supposed  to  have  then  been  some 
sixty  miles  from  it ;  while  its  altitude  above  the  level 
of  the  sea  was  more  than  twice  what  it  now  is.  The' 
continental  coast  line  seems  to  have  then  run  well 
outside  of  what  we  call  Cape  Ann  and  Cape  Cod. 
The  site  of  present  Boston  was  forty  miles  inland, 
and  a  very  considerable  river  with  its  affluents,  the 
predecessor  of  the  Merrimac,  drained  all  the  country 
hereabouts.  Flowing  down  from  the  New  Hamp- 
shire hills  and  across  the  present  Middlesex  water- 
shed, it  found  an  outlet,  it  is  surmised,  not  where  the 
Merrimac  empties  itself,  but  through  the  channels 
of  what  are  now  the  Mystic  or  the  Charles.  Then 
came  the  long  arctic  cycle,  with  its  sea  of  glacial  ice. 

22 


A   MILESTONE    PLANTED 

The  dreary  waste  reached  back  to  the  very  pole,  — 
one  unbroken  area  of  frozen  matter,  —  soil,  gravel 
and  ice,  —  its  surface  dotted  by  boulders,  like  an 
army  moving  forward,  in  New  England,  towards  the 
southeast  in  silent,  pitiless  march.  This  vast  and 
indescribable  desolation  was,  it  is  supposed,  a  mile 
or  more  in  solid  depth,  overtopping  the  summits  of 
our  hills  by  thousands  of  feet.  When  all  this  region, 
the  crest  of  Mt.  Washington  even,  was  submerged 
by  the  sea  of  ice,  Lincoln  lay  simply  devoid  of  Hfe  — 
crushed  and  mute  —  under  a  superincumbent  burden 
of  to  us  inconceivable  thickness  and  weight.  Grad- 
ually, after  a  lapse  of  years  concerning  which  we  can 
form  not  even  an  estimate,  —  it  is  here  all  matter 
of  guess-work,  —  climatic  changes  again  came  about, 
and  the  ice  sheet  began  to  melt  away.  At  the  time  of 
its  greatest  development,  its  frontier  had  been  some 
forty  miles  east  of  Nantucket  and  south  of  Cape 
Cod,  —  approximately,  perhaps,  —  for  certainty  and 
exactness  of  measurement  are,  in  this  matter,  as  yet 
remote,  —  some  120  to  150  miles  from  Lincoln;  — 
and,  as  the  grinding  and  excavating  barrier,  fold  on 
fold  and  bit  by  bit,  receded,  the  continent  beneath  it 
emerged,  assuming  as  it  did  so  a  different  contour  and 
novel  shapes. 

This  may  have  been  ten  thousand  years  ago,  more 
or  less,  —  probably  less  rather  than  more,  possibly 
six  thousand  only.  And  yet,  in  comparison  with 
even  six  thousand  years,  how  small  a  poor  century 
and  a  half  of  municipal  life  appears,  —  the  narrow 
fringe  on  an  ample  garment !    When,  however,  this 

23 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

region,  in  process  of  time  to  be  known  as  Lincoln 
by  the  descendants  of  a  race  not  yet  emerged  from 
barbarism,  again  saw  the  sunlight,  —  like  Hamlet's 
father,  revisited  the  glimpses  of  the  moon,  —  when 
this  slowly  came  about,  the  crust  of  the  solid  earth 
had  been  depressed  some  forty  feet,  —  whether  by 
the  sheer  weight  imposed  upon  it,  or  by  the  cosmic 
conditions  which  led  to  the  cyclic  change  ;  the  water- 
sheds were  not  as  they  had  been,  and  the  streams 
found  new  channels  and  outlets.  Meanwhile  the 
interior  had  become  the  seaboard ;  and  the  old  sea- 
board marked  the  edge  of  what  are  known  as  deep- 
sea  soundings.  In  the  further  interior  the  whole 
aspect  of  the  continent  had  undergone  change,  the 
former  surface  had  been  ground  down  or  scraped 
away,  the  hills  had  been  denuded,  the  valleys  filled 
up.  Everything  movable  in  the  region  thereafter  to 
be  known  as  Lincoln  had  been  displaced.  When  not 
gouged  away,  the  soil  had  been  bodily  lifted  up  and 
carried  over  into  what  are  now  Norfolk  and  Plymouth 
counties,  and  there  deposited ;  or,  perhaps,  borne 
still  further  on  and,  literally,  cast  into  the  sea.  Thus, 
when  Lincoln  —  the  township  we  know  —  emerged 
from  under  the  liquescent  mass,  it  appeared  not  only 
in  a  new  form,  but  with  a  soil  in  large  degree  alien, 
—  a  detritus  from  northern  Massachusetts,  and  the 
mountains  of  New  Hampshire.  As  the  ice  dissolved, 
moreover,  fierce  sub-glacial  streams  flowed  to  and 
fro,  or  made  lakes  against  the  barrier,  seeking, 
through  a  strangely  changed  watershed,  the  easiest 
outlets.   These  streams  also  brought  down  with  them 

24 


The  William  Hartwell  House 

Residence  of  Mr.  Joh?i  Dee 

(p.  216) 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

vast  deposits  of  soil,  —  gravel,  clay  and  sand,  — 
spreading  them  over  the  denuded  country  or  the 
face  of  yet  unmelted  ice,  thus  long  held  congealed. 
On  an  immensely  large  scale  of  space  and  time,  it 
was  the  process  we  now  see  in  little  each  recurring 
spring.  The  fields  and  roadsides  are  then  boggy 
with  water,  brooklets  in  miniature  run  everywhere, 
the  uplands  are  in  movement  towards  the  valleys, 
and  every  hollow  in  the  fields  becomes  for  a  time  a 
shallow  lake.  In  certain  spots,  —  recesses  in  the  soil, 
—  bodies  of  ice  accumulate,  and,  becoming  covered 
with  soil,  are  shielded  from  atmospheric  influence. 
Presently,  the  ice  formation  melts  until  finally  a 
cavity  is  left,  at  the  bottom  of  which  lie  the  matters 
which  had  held  the  ice  congealed.  On  a  gigantic 
scale,  multiplied  in  every  case  by  many  thousand- 
fold, this  familiar  process  then  went  on. 

Take  an  instance  fresh  in  memory.  The  winter 
just  ended  was  with  us  one  of  well-nigh  unprece- 
dented severity.  They  say  we  had  a  snowfall  of  some 
seventy  inches ;  while,  on  more  than  thirty  days,  the 
mercury  registered  from  thirty  to  sixty  degrees  of 
frost.  The  ice  formation  and  snow  deposit,  when  the 
season  passed  its  climax,  may  have  averaged  two 
feet.  They  certainly  did  not  average  more.  During 
that  glacial  period,  as  the  result  of  which  the  Lincoln 
region  assumed  its  present  contour,  the  ice  formation 
was,  instead  of  two  feet  thick,  perhaps  five  thousand  ; 
and,  after  lasting  not  three  months  but  for  centuries, 
it  at  length  broke  up  through  a  period  and  from 
cosmic  causes  which  the  scientist  has  as  yet  failed  to 

as 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

specify  or  explain.  One  thing  only  may  safely  be 
assumed.  Every  natural  process  we  last  month 
watched  in  little  then  proceeded  on  a  scale  at  least 
two  thousand  times  as  large.  Our  gurgling  roadside 
gutter  stream  was  a  rushing  sub-glacial  torrent ;  the 
cavities  left  by  the  ice  bodies  which  lingered  last  be- 
came the  beds  of  lakes  ;  the  soil  and  gravel  and  sand 
we  saw  washed  down  and  left  in  the  lowlands  became 
those  ridges  of  gravel  and  hard-pan,  those  deposits 
of  light,  sandy  soil,  those  upland  bogs  and  marshes, 
cold  and  treeless,  with  which  Lincoln  to-day  abounds. 
Starting  at  this  very  hill  on  which  Lincoln  village 
stands,  going  out  through  yonder  door  and  walk- 
ing down  by  Sandy  Pond,  the  geologist  will  to-day 
point  out  the  line  of  gravel  deposit  left  by  the  gla- 
cier where  its  ice-concealed  streams  tore  down  to  the 
Sudbury,  which  then  found  and  formed  the  channel 
wherein  now  it  flows.  First,  there  is  Sandy  Pond,  a 
mere  hollow  among  the  hills,  partly  rimmed  by  gla- 
cial rubbish  ;  then  there  are  the  Concord  woods,  all 
ridged  with  glacial  kames  and  knolls,  between  and 
among  which  lie  yet  other  ponds ;  next,  sixty  feet 
below  Sandy  Pond,  though  not  a  mile  away,  is  Wal- 
den,  a  deep  ice-block  cavity,  among  the  gravels ; 
finally,  a  succession  of  ridges,  swamps,  bogs,  swales 
and  hollows,  —  still  freshly  bearing  the  imprints  of 
the  glacier,  —  until  we  emerge  on  Fairhaven-bay, 
the  shallow  and  confined  residuum  of  what  was  once 
a  lake  of  depth  and  compass.  As  the  crow  flies, 
Fairhaven-bay  is  but  a  short  two  hundred  yards 
from  Walden,  and,  measured  centre  to  centre,  two 

26 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

miles  from  Sandy  Pond ;  but,  under  the  mysterious 
workings  of  glacial  force,  there  is  a  drop  of  sixty 
feet  between  Sandy  Pond  and  Walden,  and  of  an 
hundred  between  it  and  the  Sudbury.  And  all  the 
intermediate  space  is  so  fresh  from  the  formative 
power,  so  clearly  marked  by  it,  that  though  we  fail 
in  our  daily  walks  to  note  it,  a  thousand  years  are 
there  but  as  yesterday  and  as  a  watch  in  the  night/ 

So  it  was  and  is ;  and,  because  of  it,  the  Lincoln 
of  to-day  is  a  Massachusetts  hill  region.  In  Mr. 
Wheeler's  forceful,  if  homely,  words,  "  not  a  tubful 
of  water "  flows  into  the  town,  —  every  drop  that 
filters  through  its  soil  or  falls  from  the  clouds  upon 
it  always  has  sought,  and  now  seeks,  an  outlet  from 
it.  Hence  its  history.  Originally,  the  backwoods, 
the  outlying  districts,  "  the  Farms,"  as  such  dis- 
tricts were  then  called,  of  several  adjacent  towns,  out 
of  them  it  was  carved  and  made  up.  Concord  and 
Lexington  and  Weston  each  contributed,  even  though 
grudgingly,  a  share.  In  fact,  the  tradition  is  that  by 
those  dwelling  in  the  mother  communities  Lincoln 
was  long  known  not  by  that  name,  but  was  somewhat 
derisively  designated  "  Niptown,"  being  made  up,  it 
was  alleged,  of  remnants  bitten  oif,  as  it  were,  from 
each. 

But  of  the  three  territorial  entities  thus  despoiled, 
one  alone.  Concord,  can  in  the  Massachusetts  no- 
menclature be  classed  as  a  mother  town.  Settled, 
because  of  its  well-watered  site  and  broad  bottom 
lands,  in  1635,  Concord  was  in  the  same  year  incor- 

1  See  Appendix  A,  pp.  113-126. 
27 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

poratedj  thirteenth  in  seniority  among  Massachu- 
setts towns.  Cambridge  and  Watertown  bordered  it 
on  the  east ;  to  the  west  was  the  unpeopled  wilder- 
ness. What  afterwards  became  Lexington  was  then 
known  as  Cambridge  Farms,  —  the  outlying  back 
region  of  what  a  year  later  (1636)  became  the  col- 
lege town.  But  almost  sixty  years  were  to  pass  be- 
fore an  independent  existence,  as  Lexington,  was  to 
be  given  that  remote  region,  first  (1691)  as  a  pre- 
cinct, then  (i7i3)asa  municipality.  Watertown  was 
in  every  sense  of  the  term  a  Massachusetts  mother 
town.  Not  until  17 13  was  Weston  cut  off  from  it. 
Thus,  after  17 13,  Concord,  Lexington  and  Weston 

—  one  mother  and  two  daughter  towns  —  adjoined 
each  other,  and  where  they  met  was  the  hill  portion 
of  each  ;  —  an  outlying,  then  inaccessible  and,  conse- 
quently, undesirable  region,  somewhat  elevated,  not 
well  drained,  heavily  wooded  and  with  an  inferior 
soil,  —  where  not  cold  and  boggy,  light  and  friable. 
In  a  word,  it  was  a  glacial  detritus,  and  not  an  allu- 
vial deposit.  So,  naturally  enough,  Lincoln,  the  hill 
tract  of  the  three  towns,  was  peopled  last,  nor  thickly 
peopled  at  that.  But  at  length  the  fulness  of  time 
came  to  it  also. 

It  is  one  of  the  commonplaces  of  our  Massa- 
chusetts history  that  those  who  first  established 
themselves  here  as  families,  —  fathers,  mothers  and 
children,  —  and  not  as  mere  adventurers,  came  to 
Plymouth  in  1610,  or  to  Salem  in  1628,  or  to 
Boston  in  1630,  to  found  a  "plantation  religious," 

—  church  and  town  were  one  in  the  beginning,  and 

28 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

thenceforth  advanced  hand  in  hand.  The  church 
represented  and  comprised  not  only  the  religious 
aspirations  and  spiritual  existence,  but  the  social  life 
also ;  the  town,  the  material,  the  educational  and 
political.  The  meeting-house,  as  its  name  implied, 
was  common  ground ;  for  in  those  days  all  was 
sanctified  in  a  way,  and  nothing  was  peculiarly  sanc- 
tified. So,  theology  and  religion  permeating  life, 
church  and  town  met  under  one  roof-tree.  There 
was  no  consecrated  church  edifice,  and  no  distinctive 
town-hall,  —  only  the  Meeting-house.  Naturally,  as 
the  inhabitants  occupying  the  back  lands,  —  the 
Farms,  —  the  common  hill  country  of  Concord  and 
Lexington  and  Weston, —  increased  in  number,  they 
became  more  and  more  conscious  of  their  isolation. 
It  must  have  been  great,  —  as  we  without  much 
exaggeration  would  consider  it,  unbearable.  So  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  discover,  for  there  are  no 
maps  of  that  period,  and  the  records  are  very  scanty, 
after  the  incorporation  of  Weston  (17 13)  and  before 
that  of  Lincoln  (1754)  there  were  but  two  East  and 
West  roads  running  through  all  this  region,  with  one 
North  and  South  road.  In  the  case  of  Concord,  the 
earliest  way  opened,  seems  to  have  been  from  Water- 
town,  through  what  is  now  Lexington,  by  the  old 
Virginia  road,  so  called,  through  Lincoln's  northern 
limits,  to  the  junction  of  the  Sudbury  and  Assabet 
rivers,  beyond.'    Speaking  generally,  in  those  times 

I  See  Albert  E.  Wood's  paper  »«The  Plantation  of  Muskete- 
quid ' '  (p.  zo),  in  the  publications  of  the  Concord  Antiquarian  So- 
ciety. 

29 


THE   TOWN    OF    LINCOLN 

the  bridle  path  followed  the  Indian  trail ;  the  farm- 
way  the  bridle  path ;  the  road,  then,  was  developed 
out  of  what  had  been  the  farm-way ;  and,  in  due 
time,  the  thoroughfare,  or  highway,  followed.  The 
railroad,  when  at  last  it  came,  was,  as  a  general  thing, 
apt  to  keep  close  to  the  original  trail. 

From  Boston  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts  ra- 
diated ;  and,  in  that  settlement,  Boston  continued  to 
be  the  centre  of  gravitation.  But,  at  the  time  of  the 
incorporation  of  Lincoln,  and  for  two  and  forty  years 
after  that  event,  Boston  was,  and  remained,  strictly 
a  peninsula.  We  to-day,  as  our  fathers  before  us,  are 
so  accustomed  to  reach  the  city^s  centre  by  a  direct 
route,  road  or  rail,  through  Arlington,  or  Waltham, 
and  Cambridge,  that  it  is  not  easy  to  realize  that  this 
has  not  always  been  the  line  of  intercourse,  —  that 
it  is,  in  fact,  a  modern  invention.  Such,  however,  is 
the  case ;  nor  is  it  possible  to  get  a  clear  idea  of  the 
origin  and  development  of  Lincoln's  system  of  roads 
without  first  ridding  the  mind  of  that  to  which  it  is 
accustomed  as  part  of  its  daily  life.  Lincoln's  roads 
originated,  and  were  developed,  with  an  eye  to  Bos- 
ton :  but,  until  1786,  the  only  unbroken  thorough- 
fare into  Boston  was  through  Roxbury,  over  the 
Neck,  as  it  was  called.  The  single  other  regular 
means  of  communication  was  the  Charlestown  ferry, 
provided  in  1631  ;  and,  later,  become  a  link  in  the 
great  Coast-road  of  1639,  from  Salem  to  Plymouth. 
Thus  for  one  whole  century  and  two  thirds  of  an- 
other, following  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts, — 
three  fifths  of  the  whole  time  since  elapsed, —  every 

30 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

vehicle  that  went  out  of  Boston,  or  into  Boston,  ex- 
cept over  the  ice  in  winter,  passed  through  Roxbury 
and  along  what  is  now  Washington  Street.  Foot- 
passengers,  and,  at  a  later  day,  those  on  horseback 
probably,  were  ferried  over  from  Charlestown ;  but 
everything  on  wheels  or  runners,  even  from  the 
Essex  towns,  found  its  roundabout  way  Boston-ward 
over  the  Neck.  Until  1783,  people  passing  between 
Boston  and  Cambridge  even,  unless  they  sailed  or 
rowed  over,  went  through  Brookline.  Thus  Judge 
Sewell  records  how,  on  July  4,  171 1,  he  "went  to 
the  Commencement  by  water  in  a  sloop  ;  "  though, 
in  1720,  he  drove  out  through  Roxbury,  but  had  a 
pleasant  passage  home  by  water,  and  "  landed  at  the 
bottom  of  the  Common."  When,  fifty-five  years 
later,  the  British  troops  marched  through  Lincoln  to 
Concord,  they  were  carried  over  from  Boston  by 
boats  to  what  is  now  East  Cambridge,  and,  on  their 
return,  they  made  their  way  to  Charlestown.  I  have 
referred  to  Judge  Sewell,  and  his  Commencements 
at  Cambridge.  The  Judge  was  a  good  deal  of  a  trav- 
eller about  Massachusetts,  but  he  records  one  visit 
only  to  Concord.  That  was  on  Wednesday,  May  14, 
171 2  ;  and  he  went  as  a  delegate  from  the  church  of 
Boston  to  the  ordination  of  the  Rev.  John  Whiting. 
He  made  the  journey  in  a  hired  calash ;  and,  start- 
ing from  his  house  in  Boston  at  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  he  got  to  Concord  at  ten.  Coming  back, 
he  left  Concord  at  half  after  three,  and  "  Returned 
into  my  own  House  a  very  little  before  Nine.  Laus 
Beor 

31 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

Boston  being  thus  the  great  objective,  it  naturally 
followed  that,  as  new  roads  or  ways  were  opened  in 
Lincoln,  they  almost  uniformly  tended  towards  either 
Charlestown  or  Roxbury,  on  the  way  to  Boston,  and 
not  at  all  to  Cambridge.  The  earliest  map  we  have 
upon  which  the  roads  of  the  period  anterior  to  1800 
are  indicated,  is  an  English  military  map  of  1775. 
The  original  and  subsequent  lines  of  communication 
can  thereon  be  traced.  The  north  road  in  Lincoln 
then  went  by  way  of  Prospect  Hill  to  Charlestown ; 
the  south  road  ran  through  Weston  to  Watertown ; 
there  crossing  the  Charles,  it  passed  through  Brook- 
line  to  Roxbury.  A  more  direct  road  through  Cam- 
bridge, and  over  Cambridgeport  bridge,  was  opened 
in  1793;  while  what  was  at  the  time  referred  to  as 
that  "gigantic  undertaking  the  Mill  Dam,"  the  ex- 
tension of  Beacon  Street  to  BrookHne,  was  not  com- 
pleted until  i8ao.  So  far  as  Lincoln  was  concerned, 
the  Mill  Dam,  following  West  Boston  bridge,  at  last 
did  away  with  Charlestown  and  Roxbury  as  thorough- 
fares to  Boston.' 

In  this  comparatively  remote  region,  lying  between 
the  two  natural  routes  to  Boston,  —  elevated,  tree- 
grown  and  secluded, — a  sparse  population  dwelt, 
and,  somehow,  extracted  from  a  niggard  soil  the 
wherewithal  on  which  to  live.  Needless  to  say  there 
were  in  those  days  no  stage-coaches ;  no  daily  news- 
papers ;  no  post-offices  or  mails ;  no  places  where 
men  congregated  ;  for  Lincoln,  —  I  am  speaking  of 
the  period  before  1750, — there  was  not  even  a  corner 

'  See  Appendix  B,  pp.  127-132. 
32 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

grocery  or  a  cross-road  variety  store.  It  was  a  work- 
a-day  life  in  the  woods  all  the  year  round  for  those 
whose  lot  was  there  cast,  —  with  Boston,  their  near- 
est market-town,  some  twenty  miles  away.  How 
they  continued  to  exist,  much  more  accumulate  sub- 
stance, I  have  found  it  difficult  to  make  out.  Wood 
they  had  for  fuel ;  corn  they  grew,  and  from  it  made 
meal ;  the  pork  and  beef  barrels  were  in  the  store- 
house ;  their  cloth  was  home-spun ;  of  groceries  and 
West  India  goods  they  used  but  little,  our  necessi- 
ties being  luxuries  with  them  ;  and,  for  household 
utensils,  they  depended  on  the  passing  peddler,  or 
the  occasional  journey  by  cart  or  sleigh  to  Boston. 
In  case  of  illness  there  was  no  near-by  physician; 
for  childbirth  no  nurse;  the  simplest  drugs  and 
medicines  were  hardly  procurable.  There  were  few 
books,  and  absolutely  no  libraries  ;  no  printing-press, 
much  less  a  news  stand.  A  surveyor  by  calling,  who 
in  1 82 1  published  what  he  designated  a  topographi- 
cal sketch  of  the  country  immediately  about  Boston, 
has  left  this  description  of  Lincoln ;  and,  be  it  re- 
membered, it  was  written  in  the  stage-coach  period, 
nearly  seventy  years  after  the  incorporation  of  the 
town,  and  when  many  additional  public  ways  and 
turnpikes  had  been  laid  out:  "The  old  road  [Tra- 
pelo]  leading  to  the  town  of  Lincoln,  for  the  last  six 
miles,  is  crooked,  narrow,  and  hilly,  little  travelled  on 
and  much  neglected.  The  roads  within  the  limits  of 
the  town  are  generally  uneven  and  in  bad  repair.  The 
soil  is  coarse  and  rocky,  a  great  portion  whereof  is 
covered  with  wood,  and  not  more  than  one  third  of  the 

33 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

town  under  culture." '  Certainly  not  an  alluring 
description ;  yet  at  the  time  when  it  was  written  two 
generations  of  inhabitants  had  already  passed  away 
since  the  incorporation  of  Lincoln,  and  the  War  of 
Independence  was  as  remote  from  the  people  then 
alive  as  the  War  of  Secession  is  from  us. 

The  situation  I  have  sought  thus  rapidly  to  picture 
had  existed  from  the  beginning.  Custom  made  it 
endurable  ;  but,  as  population  increased,  people  be- 
came restive.  A  craving  was  felt.  A  full  century 
before  the  incorporation  of  Lincoln  was  discussed,  the 
Great  and  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  Bay  had 
proclaimed  it  as  their  first  "duty  to  provide  that 
all  places  and  people,  within  their  gates,  should  be 
supplied  with  an  able  and  faithful  minister  of  God's 
holy  word;  "  and  now,  in  August,  1744,  divers  of 
those  residing  in  this,  the  easterly  part  of  Concord, 
the  northerly  part  of  Weston  and  the  westerly  part 
of  Lexington,  represented  to  that  same  Great  and 
General  Court  that  they  labored  "  under  great  diffi- 
culties and  inconveniences  by  reason  of  their  distance 
from  their  respective  places  of  public  worship  in  said 
towns,  their  families  being  many  of  them  numerous, 
in  the  winter  season  more  especially ; "  and,  accord- 
ingly, they  petitioned  to  be  set  off  as  a  separate  pre- 
cinct, to  the  end  that  "  the  public  worship  of  God 
might,  by  them,  be  more  comfortably,  constantly  and 
universally  attended  upon."  The  prayer  was  certainly 
reasonable  ;  for,  as  the  signers  of  it  went  on  to  assert, 
many  of  them  lived  "  four,  and  some  five  miles  dis- 

'  J.  G.  Hales,  Survey  of  Boston  and  Vicinity  (1821),  p.  68. 

34 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

tant  from  "  their  places  of  public  worship  ;  whereas, 
if  the  petition  was  granted,  there  would  be  "  but  few 
inhabitants  two  miles  and  a  quarter  from  the  center" 
of  the  proposed  precinct. 

Circumstanced  as  we  to-day  are,  we  do  not  even 
remotely  realize  what  all  this  meant ;  but,  to  those 
instructed,  the  words  used  are  in  their  simplicity 
redundant  of  pathos.  They  reveal  a  community  cut 
off  from  everything  which  to  us  makes  life  worth 
living.  Essentially  a  simple,  a  moral  and  a  religious 
race,  the  seclusion  in  which  they  perforce  passed 
their  lives  bordered  close  on  that  solitude  which 
leads  to  mental  atrophy.  They  had,  of  course,  their 
pleasures  and  pastimes,  such  as  they  were ;  for  it 
was  neither  a  gloomy  nor  a  joyless  race.  There  were 
the  house-raisings,  the  pig-stickings  and  the  corn- 
huskings  ;  Thanksgiving  came,  as  well  as  Fast-day  : 
but,  like  his  English  forbears,  the  New  Englander 
took  his  pleasure  rather  sadly.  Into  it  also  he  car- 
ried an  abiding  sense  of  the  obligations  under  which 
he  drew  breath,  and  the  hereafter  which  awaited  him. 
Thus  the  church  to  which  he  belonged,  and  the  Sab- 
bath concourse  at  the  meeting-house  were  about  all 
either  social  or  aesthetic  that  existence  had  to  offer. 
According  to  our  ideas,  it  was  not  much  ;  but,  to 
them,  it  was  everything. 

Thus  it  was  with  Lincoln,  as  it  was  with  all  the 
little  New  England  civic  communities,  —  the  history 
of  the  church  is  the  early  history  of  the  town.  Not 
only  were  the  two  blended,  but  the  former  absorbed 
the   latter.    On  the  earliest   plan   of  the  township 

35 


THE  TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

which  has  come  down  to  us,  that  made  by  Samuel 
Hoar  just  forty  years  after  its  incorporation,  the 
"  meeting-house "  is  the  one  building  designated ; 
and  when  Hales,  twenty-five  years  later  made  his 
surveys,  he  described  the  "  principal  settlements " 
as  grouped  around  the  meeting-house.  Naturally 
enough,  therefore,  the  church  being  its  all,  the  first 
acts  of  the  "  distinct  and  separate  Precinct,"  eight 
years  before  the  town  came  into  being,  related  to 
the  meeting-house,  and  the  securing  the  services  of 
"  some  meet  person  "  therein  "  publicly  to  preach 
the  word  of  God." 

Of  that  earliest  meeting-house,  referred  to  in 
April,  1747,  as  "already  built,"  no  description  has 
come  down  to  us.  It  seems  to  have  stood,  and 
served  its  purpose,  for  over  a  century,  indeed  until 
1857,  or  easily  within  the  memory  of  those  now  liv- 
ing ;  but  no  sketch  or  picture  of  it  taken  on  the  spot 
and  at  the  time  is  extant.  In  its  latest  form  also  it 
diifered  in  all  essential  respects  from  the  more  prim- 
itive building  of  1747,  which  appears  to  have  been 
a  sufficiently  large,  but  somewhat  barn-like  structure, 
foursquare,  two  stories  in  height,  and  surmounted 
by  a  sloping  ridge-pole  roof.  In  the  very  early  days, 
in  fact  immediately  after  the  incorporation  of  1754, 
provision  was  made  for  a  belfry,  and,  subsequently, 
for  a  steeple  ;  and  for  entrances  and  porches  at  the 
front,  and  on  the  two  sides.  The  names,  twenty- 
two  in  number,  of  those  who  contributed,  whether 
in  money,  material  or  labor,  to  the  construction  of 
the  primitive  building,  have  come  down  to  us,  —  a 

36 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

species  of  original  town  roster.  Headed  by  Benjamin 
Brown,  in  it  is  found  the  familiar  Lincoln  nomen- 
clature from  the  first  page  of  its  records  to  that  just 
written,  —  Munroe,  Pierce,  Brooks,  Wheeler  and 
Brown;  though  Farrar,  Hartwell,  Baker  and  Smith 
do  not  there  appear.  Curiously  enough,  and  indica- 
tive of  the  prudential  spirit  of  the  period,  in  the  con- 
veyance to  the  precinct  of  the  edifice,  together  with 
the  land  on  which  it  stood,  the  "  glass  in  said  House" 
was  specifically  and  carefully  excepted.  The  win- 
dows and  sashes  apparently  did  not  go  with  the  site 
and  structure ;  and  the  precinct  forthwith  voted  to 
assess  itself  in  the  sum  of  ^250,  "in  bills  of  credit 
of  the  new  tenor,"  to  defray  the  necessary  charges 
in  further  finishing  "the  edifice."  Eleven  months 
later,  the  meeting-house  meanwhile  having  appar- 
ently been  improved  and  completed,  Mr.  William 
Lawrence  was  chosen  as  "  gospel  minister,"  receiving 
twenty-two  out  of  twenty-nine  votes.  His  settle- 
ment was  characteristic  of  the  period.  He  was  to 
have  outright  ^800,  "  old  tenor,"  to  garnish  his 
establishment,  and  afterwards  an  annual  salary  of 
;^400  "  according  to  old  tenor  bills."  But  those  were 
the  dreary  days  of  provincial  paper  money.  The 
currency  was  in  process  of  readjustment  on  a  hard- 
money  basis,  and  the  bills  in  use  circulated  at  a  rate 
of  about  eleven  paper  to  one  silver.  A  livelihood 
of  ;^400  "  according  to  old  tenor  bills  "  represented, 
therefore,  a  somewhat  precarious  and  uncertain  sup- 
port; and  Mr.  Lawrence  not  unnaturally  stipu- 
lated  that  his  salary  should  be  regulated  by  the 

37 


THE  TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

prices  "  of  some  of  the  necessaries  of  life."  The  ar- 
ticles then  enumerated  tell  us  clearly  what  the  eigh- 
teenth century  population  of  the  town  produced,  and 
upon  what  those  composing  it  lived  :  —  Indian  corn 
was  the  staple,  rated  at  fifteen  shillings,  old  tenor,  per 
bushel  ;  rye,  one  pound,  old  tenor,  per  bushel ;  pork, 
one  shilling  and  eight  pence  per  pound ;  beef,  one 
shilling  per  pound.  The  minister  was  also  to  have 
delivered  to  him  "  at  his  house,  thirty  cords  of  wood, 
annually,  for  his  fire."    What  do  these  figures  mean, 

—  j[SoOy  and  X400  "  according  to  old  tenor  bills  ;  *' 
Indian  corn  at  fifteen  shillings  per  bushel ;  rye  at 
one  pound  per  bushel,  —  wood  thirty  cords  ? 

This  is  history  !  Those  figures  carry  us  back  di- 
rectly into  the  homes  of  a  people.  With  them  under 
our  eyes,  we  can  sit  down  beneath  the  roof-trees  ;  we 
stand  at  the  hearthstones.  Interpreting  those  first  pre- 
cinct votes  in  the  language,  and  measuring  them  by  the 
standards  of  our  time,  —  for  they  are  expressed  in  a 
familiar  tongue  but  in  forgotten  terms,  —  doing  this, 
we  get  down  to  the  daily  lives  of  our  colonial  period, 

—  a  period  which  in  Lincoln  lasted  as  long  as  its  first 
meeting-house  stood.    But  of  this,  more  presently. 

First,  however,  to  return  for  a  moment  to  Lincoln 
town,  successor  to  Concord  second  precinct.  We  ob- 
serve its  birth  on  the  twenty-third  day  of  April,  and 
refer  to  the  opening  lines  of  the  first  page  of  the  ear- 
liest volume  of  our  records  as  authority  for  so  doing. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  act  of  incorporation  passed 
both  legislative  bodies  April  19.  This  fact,  only 
recently  come  to  light,  has  led  to  further  research 

38 


The  Samuel  Hartwell  House 

Residence  of  Messrs.  Edward  and  Francis  McHugh 

(p.  216) 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

among  the  archives  of  the  Commonwealth,  as  a  re- 
sult whereof  it  appears  that  Lincoln  was  very  directly 
connected  with  a  not  uninteresting  incident  in  Massa- 
chusetts provincial  history  in  a  way  which  has  here- 
tofore escaped  the  notice  of  its  historians.  Space  and 
time  do  not  admit  of  full  treatment  here.  Suffice 
it  to  say  that  between  1740  and  1760  the  incor- 
poration of  towns,  carrying  with  it  the  right  of  re- 
presentation, was,  for  reasons  of  state,  discouraged. 
During  that  period  only  four  new  towns  were  or- 
ganized ;  in  all  other  cases,  some  twenty-two  in 
number,  districts  were  created  with  all  the  powers 
and  rights  of  towns,  save  name  and  representation. 
But  the  1754  session  of  the  General  Court  was  in 
this  respect  exceptional,  inasmuch  as  three  new  towns 
were  then  incorporated.  Of  the  three  Lincoln  was 
one,  Greenwich  and  Petersham  being  the  other  two. 
Governor  Shirley  had  himself  inaugurated  what  may 
be  called  the  district  policy  ;  and,  at  his  instance,  in- 
structions covering  the  case  had  in  1743  been  sent 
out  by  the  Lords  of  Trade.  Subsequently,  while 
Governor  Shirley  himself  was  in  England,  the  mat- 
ter was  wrangled  over  between  the  Legislature  and 
Lieutenant-Governor  Phipps,  who,  in  the  absence 
of  the  governor,  represented  the  Crown.  Chambers 
Russell  then  took  a  hand  in  the  matter.  An  ener- 
getic man,  he  had  for  some  time  been  involved  in  a 
controversy  with  the  people  of  Concord.  He  wanted 
a  public  way  laid  out  through  his  estate ;  the  present 
road  from  Concord  to  Weston,  by  Walden  Pond. 
Concord  opposed  the  laying  out  "  tooth  and  nail." 

39 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

So  he  threw  his  influence  in  with  the  inhabitants  of 
the  remoter  parts  of  the  three  adjoining  towns,  seek- 
ing incorporation.  The  Russells  were  a  power  in  the 
Province.  Chambers's  father,  Daniel  Russell,  was 
of  the  Council ;  his  brother,  James,  was  a  member  of 
the  House  of  Representatives ;  he  himself  was  a 
justice  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Judicature,  as  the 
highest  legal  tribunal  of  the  Province  was  then  de- 
nominated. In  August,  1753,  Governor  Shirley  had 
returned  to  Massachusetts  after  an  absence  of  three 
years  ;  and,  meeting  the  General  Court  in  December, 
was  not  successful  in  his  dealings  with  it.  Hutch- 
inson says  in  his  history  that  when  he  asked  some 
allowance  to  be  made  him  for  the  time  he  was  away, 
the  legislative  body  returned  "an  angry  message, 
and  not  only  refused  to  enlarge  the  grant,  but  gave 
this  reason  for  it,  that  if  his  services  and  their  pay- 
ment since  his  appointment  to  the  government  could 
be  fully  stated,  the  balance  would  be  in  their  favor." 
Having  measures  of  his  own  —  a  fort  on  the  Ken- 
nebec, and  instructed  delegates  to  the  Albany  Con- 
vention then  about  to  be  held  —  much  at  heart,  his 
excellency  was  in  no  position  to  oppose  the  wishes 
of  the  Assembly  on  matters  of  lesser  consequence. 
The  Great  and  General  Court  met  on  March  a 8, 
1754,  and  the  petition  of  Chambers  Russell  and 
others  for  the  incorporation  of  Lincoln  was  that  day 
presented.  Somewhat  in  disregard  of  rule  and  pre- 
cedent, the  measure  was  immediately  pushed  through 
all  the  legislative  stages  ;  and,  the  opposition  of  the 
three  towns  curtailed  of  territory  to  the  contrary  not- 

40 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

withstanding,  the  act,  in  face  of  sundry  adverse  peti- 
tions, passed  both  houses  within  three  weeks  of  its 
presentation.  This  was  on  April  19.  It  then  went 
to  the  governor.  His  instructions  adverse  to  it  were 
explicit ;  he  himself  had  inspired  them.  There  was, 
however,  no  help  ;  so  he  chose  the  lesser  of  two 
evils.  He  seems  to  have  held  the  measure  some 
days  under  advisement ;  but  apparently  signed  it  on 
the  23d,  and  it  then  became  a  law.  The  original 
parchment  has  disappeared.  It  cannot  be  found  on 
the  files  of  the  office  of  the  secretary  of  the  Com- 
monwealth ;  but  the  first  town-clerk  of  Lincoln,  in 
opening  his  book  of  records,  spread  on  it  the  certi- 
fied copy  of  the  act  sent  him  by  the  deputy  secretary, 
the  act,  as  thus  copied,  bearing  date  "  April  the  23d, 
Anno  Dom.  1754."  No  time  was  lost  in  organiza- 
tion. James  Minot,  of  Concord,  was  a  member  of  the 
Council.  The  legislative  session  closed  on  the  23d, 
and  Mr.  Minot  seems  to  have  carried  the  act  home 
with  him,  the  ink  of  the  governor's  signature  hardly 
dry  upon  it.  The  next  day  he  issued  his  precept  for 
a  town-meeting.  Two  days  later  it  was  held ;  and 
the  town  organization  of  Lincoln  thus  dates  from  the 
26th  day  of  April,  1754. 

On  the  26th  of  May,  1746,  one  month  only  lack- 
ing of  eight  full  years  before,  the  first  meeting  of 
Concord's  second  precinct  had  been  held  at  the  house 
of  Edward  Flint.  The  evolution  was  now  complete ; 
the  precinct  had  become  a  town  :  and,  as  was  proper 
and  in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  that  time,  the 
first  town-meeting  was  held  in  the  meeting-house. 

4X 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

Judging  by  patronymics,  the  officers  then  selected 
might  have  been  selected  yesterday, —  Ephraim 
Flint,  Ephraim  Hartwell,  Samuel  Farrar,  John  Hoar, 
John  Garfield,  Joshua  Brooks,  Benjamin  Monroe, 
John  Adams,  Josiah  Parks,  Edmund  Wheeler,  John 
Billings.  From  that  day  to  this,  the  continuity  has 
been  unbroken. 

I  have  just  said  that,  in  the  case  of  Lincoln,  the 
history  of  the  church  is  the  early  history  of  the  town, 
—  the  former  absorbed  the  latter.  The  story  of  the 
Lincoln  church  has  been  told,  and  well  and  suffi- 
ciently told.  It  has  been  told  also  in  a  scholarly  way 
by  men  in  every  essential  respect  far  better  qualified 
for  the  task  than  am  I.  I  do  not  propose  to  repeat 
what  Mr.  Richardson  and  Mr.  Bradley  and  Mr. 
Porter  have  so  recently  set  forth,  and  so  graphically 
narrated.  They  have  exhausted  that  field.  I  do, 
however,  propose  to  picture,  in  so  far  as  I  can,  the 
earlier  life  of  the  town  as  seen  through  its  connection 
with  the  church ;  for,  only  in  that  way,  can  it  be  re- 
produced and  made  visible.  I  begin,  therefore,  with 
the  precinct's  earlier  ministerial  settlements. 

William  Lawrence,  the  first  minister  of  the  Lin- 
coln church,  belonged  to  the  widely-known  family 
whose  name  is  as  deeply  stamped  on  the  map  of 
Kansas  as  on  that  of  Massachusetts.  Born  at  Groton, 
in  1723,  he  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  the  class  of 
1743.  On  the  7th  of  December,  1748,  he  was  or- 
dained as  the  first  settled  minister  of  Lincoln  and,  a 
little  more  than  a  year  later,  on  the  7th  of  February, 
1750,  he  was,  in  his  own  quaint  language,  "married 

42 


A  MILESTONE   PLANTED 

To  a  young  Lady  whose  Name  was  Love  Addams, 
Daughter  of  John  &  Love  Addams/* ' 

Mr.  Lawrence  ministered  here  hard  upon  a  third 
of  a  century,  or  more  than  five  years  over  the  church 
of  the  second  Concord  precinct,  and,  for  the  twenty- 
six  years  following  those  five,  over  this  Lincoln  con- 
gregation. He  died  in  the  odor  of  sanctity,  and,  it 
is  said,  of  loyalty,  in  the  midst  of  our  revolutionary 
troubles,  on  the  nth  of  April,  1780.  He  left  his 
widow.  Love,  with  nine  children,  three  sons  and  six 
daughters,  the  youngest  of  eight  years.  Mrs.  Love 
Lawrence  lived  to  an  extreme  age,  and  far  into 
the  following  century,  dying,  January  3,  1820,  here 
on  Lincoln  hill,  to  which  she  had  come  as  a  bride 
nearly  seventy  years  before.  In  the  early  days  of 
the  town.  Chambers  Russell,  we  are  told,  was  "  the 
most  distinguished  resident  of  Lincoln,*'  as  unques- 
tionably he  was  the  most  well-to-do ;  for  no  one 
was  wealthy  in  our  sense  of  the  term.  His  mansion 
still  stands  just  south  of  the  railroad,  and  in  the 
fields  about  it  are  noble  pasture  oaks  which  even 
in  his  day  must  have  been  large.*  Next  to  Cham- 
bers Russell  in  consideration  unquestionably  came 
the  minister,  he  also  a  Harvard  graduate,  reported 
to  be  "  a  good  thinker,  a  vigorous  writer,  and  an 
instructive  preacher."  He  was  certainly  an  industri- 
ous writer,  for  it  is  recorded  of  him  that  he  wrote 
on  an  average  seventy  sermons  a  year,  and  that  he 
derived  from  the   Gospel  of  St.  Matthew  texts  for 

*  See  Appendix  C,  pp.  132-135. 

*  See  Appendix  D,  pp.  135-146. 

43 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

no  less  than  212  discourses,  while  the  Gospels  of 
Luke  and  John,  and  the  First  Epistle  of  Peter  sup- 
plied him  with  295  more.  There  is  in  this  statement 
something  pathetic  and  depressing ;  for  it  suggests 
an  industry  conscientious  and  sustained,  and  yet  so 
exceedingly  profitless.  Here  was  a  man,  educated, 
and,  presumably,  refined  in  his  way,  — a  student  and 
a  thinker,  —  but  remote  from  the  world  and  bu- 
ried in  colonial  seclusion,  cut  off  from  any  contact 
with  living  thought  or  access  to  current  literature, 
spider-like,  perpetually  evolving  sermons,  not  from 
stones  but  from  his  inner  consciousness.  Seventy 
sermons  a  year  produced  under  such  conditions  !  In 
the  thought  there  is  something  distinctly  appalling. 
Almost  had  it  been  better  to  have  ground  in  Gaza*s 
prison-house  !  —  but,  as  the  Sabbath  discourses  were 
all  they  had,  supplying  the  needs  filled  for  us  by 
theatres,  lectures,  concerts,  newspapers  and  books, 
eighteenth  century  parishioners  were,  doubtless, 
exacting.  So  the  unfortunate  minister  drudged  along, 
eking  out  weekly  his  sermon  and  a  half,  till  at 
last  the  end  came.  To  the  investigator  of  later 
times,  however,  living  in  a  wholly  different  stage  of 
development,  there  is  also  something  exasperating, 
not  to  say  irritating,  in  such  fecundity  of  the  com- 
monplace. Why  could  it  not  have  occurred  to  Mr. 
Lawrence  to  find  tongues  in  trees,  and  books  in  the 
running  brooks,  so  telling  us  something  of  Lincoln  ? 
I  have  not  examined  these  discourses  myself;  life 
—  at  least  my  life  —  is  not  long  enough  to  delve  in 
eighteenth  century  pulpit  utterances :  but  one  who 

44 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

did  dip  to  a  moderate  extent  into  the  Lawrence  man- 
uscripts assures  us  that,  though  expressed  in  a  some- 
what conventional  style,  —  how,  under  the  circum- 
stances of  composition,  could  it  have  been  otherwise  ? 
—  they  show  "  a  careful  exegesis,  a  calm,  logical 
method,"  and  "  an  earnest  purpose  ;  "  but,  and  here 
comes  in  the  irritating  proviso,  in  them  is  found  "  no 
allusion  to  passing  events."  They  are  Dead  Sea  ap- 
ples,—  "all  ashes  to  the  taste."  A  single  occasional 
discourse,  descriptive  to  us  of  the  preacher's  sur- 
roundings, his  interests,  his  people  and  their  pur- 
suits, would  in  value  have  far  outweighed  to  us 
whole  barrels  of  abstract  discourses,  though  in  them 
"  the  Beatitudes  receive  far  more  specific  attention 
than  the  Decalogue." 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  minister's  home.  Gold- 
smith, in  his  "  Deserted  Village,"  tells  us  of  the 
Auburn  curate  :  — 

**  A  man  he  was  to  all  the  country  dear 
And  passing  rich  with  forty  pounds  a  year.*' 

Measured  in  "  hard  money,"  or,  as  we  phrase  it, 
in  specie,  the  settlement  and  annual  stipend  of  the 
Rev.  William  Lawrence  does  not  seem  to  have  risen 
to  even  this  modest  competence.  Those  were  days 
of  a  depreciated  paper  currency,  —  bills  of  the 
"  old  tenor,"  bills  of  the  "  new  tenor,"  were  out- 
standing, with,  at  the  close,  continental  money. 
Some  ten  years  after  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Law- 
rence, the  Massachusetts  monetary  system  was 
reformed,  and  put  on  a  stable  basis,  through   the 

45 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

financial  skill  and  strong  business  sense  of  the 
much,  and  unjustly,  maligned  Governor  Thomas 
Hutchinson  ;  and  the  bills  of  the  "  old  tenor  '*  were 
then  called  in,  and  redeemed,  at  about  fourteen  per 
cent,  of  their  nominal  value,  —  or,  more  exactly,  at 
7.5  to  I.  The  j[Soo  voted  Mr.  Lawrence  at  his 
settlement  in  1747  represented,  therefore,  approxi- 
mately ;^ii5  in  silver  at  $3-33  a  pound,  or  an 
aggregate  sum  in  our  money  of  ^^365;  while  the 
annual  stipend  of  ;£'400  was  reduced  to  about  j[sSy 
Massachusetts,  or,  approximately,  I185  a  year.  If 
these  figures  represent  the  real  state  of  Mr.  Law- 
rence's financial  resources,  they  are  certainly  sugges- 
tive. Computed  in  staples,  —  the  market  quotations 
of  corn  and  rye,  beef  and  pork  furnishing  the  stand- 
ards of  value,  —  what,  compared  with  the  present, 
was  the  relative  purchasing  power  of  this  annual 
stipend  of  I185  "hard  money"?  Indian  corn,  for 
instance,  seems  to  have  been  valued  at  about  30 
cents  a  bushel,  and  rye  at  45  cents ;  while  pork  was 
rated  at  about  four  cents  a  pound,  and  beef  at  three 
cents.  As  corn  is  now  quoted  at  an  average  price 
of  about  42  cents  a  bushel,  and  rye  at  ^3  cents, 
while  pork  is  12  cents  per  pound,  and  beef  10 
cents,  the  purchasing  power  of  money,  measured  in 
food  staples,  compared  with  its  present  purchasing 
power,  would  seem  to  have  been  from  half  as  much 
again  to  four  and  even  five  times  as  much.' 

»  When,  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Lawrence,  the  Rev.  Charles  Steams 
was,  in  1781,  invited  to  succeed  him,  the  salary  offered  was  ;^8o, 
Massachusetts,  a  year,  in  **hard  money,"  or  ^266,  and  this  was,  pre- 

46 


A   MILESTONE    PLANTED 

Clearly,  then,  the  Rev.  William  Lawrence  must 
have  been  what  is  now  known  as  a  forehanded  man ; 
though  his  helpmate,  or,  as  he  termed  her,  his  "  yoke- 
fellow," may  well  have  been  a  large  factor  in  his  pru- 
dential affairs.  Indeed,  she  is  portrayed  to  us  as  not 
only  of  "  stately  mien  and  benign  countenance,"  but 
also  "  a  wife  of  uncommon  wisdom  and  prudence." 
The  worldly  outcome  of  the  pair  was  certainly  sug- 
gestive."   Something,  it  is  true,  came  to   Mr.  Law- 

sumably,  an  increase  on  the  salary  previously  paid  to  Mr.  Lawrence. 
The  custom  of  paying  the  minister  his  salary  on  a  standard  of  staple 
prices  continued  until  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Thus  the 
report  of  a  committee  appointed  in  1797  to  reach  an  understanding 
with  Mr.  Stearns  contains  the  following :  — 

"That  from  and  after  the  7th  day  of  November  inst:  during  the 
time  that  he  [Mr.  Stearns]  shall  remain  our  Gospel  Minister,  his  An- 
nual Salary  continue  to  be  Eighty  pounds,  at  all  times  when  the  Current 
price  of  Indian  Com  is  at  three  shillings  per  Bushell,  Rye  at  four  shil- 
lings and  Beef  at  twenty  Shillings  per  hundred,  and  Pork  at  thirty-three 
Shillings  and  four  pence  per  hundred  w't,  all  of  Right  good  Quality  — 
that  the  sum  or  amount  of  said  Salary  shall  be  increased  or  diminished 
as  the  Current  price  of  those  Articles  shall  rise  or  fall,  from  time  to 
time,  one  fourth  part  of  the  Salary  to  be  computed  on  each  of  those 
Articles.  And  that  the  Selectmen  of  the  Town  shall  make  the  said 
Computation,  with  the  said  Charles  Steams,  in  the  beginning  of  No- 
vember annually.  This  being  the  contract  of  the  Specie  part  of  his  the 
said  Charles  Steams'  Salary,  the  Allowance  of  Wood  [15  cords]  re- 
maining as  heretofore  allowed  by  the  Town  —  And  that  the  payment 
of  the  said  Salary  to  the  said  Charles  Stearns  be  made  semi-annually  by 
the  Treasurer."  (Town  Records,  November  6,  1797.)  Measured 
by  purchasing  power,  the  value  of  the  money  unit  was  then  four  to  five 
times  what  it  now  is;  measured  by  cost  of  living,  a  salary  of  {^233  may 
have  been,  approximately,  the  equivalent  of  a  salary  of  $1200  a  year 
now;  but  life  was  much  simpler  generally. 

^  The  thrift  and  business  instinct  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Lawrence  and  his 
spouse  seem  to  have  excited  notice  during  his  life  ;  for,  in  his  anniver- 

47 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

rence  in  the  way  of  inheritance ;  but  it  was  not  much, 
and  consisted  chiefly  of  farming  land  in  Groton.  Yet, 
"  passing  rich  "  on  that  salary  of  ^60,  Massachusetts, 
a  year,  he  and  his  spouse  Love  lived,  and  obviously 
prospered  ;  for  they  brought  up,  educated  and  mar- 
ried a  family  of  nine  children,  six  of  whom  were 
daughters.  And  when,  a  minister  of  one  church  for 
over  thirty  years,  William  Lawrence  wrote  himself 
to  a  death-bed,  he  breathed  his  last  in  his  house 
here  on  Lincoln  hill,  the  possessor  of  what  is  de- 
scribed as  "  a  good  farm  of  thirty-nine  acres  con- 
nected with  the  homestead,  extending  down  to 
[Sandy]  pond,  besides  eighteen  acres  known  then  as 
the  'Oliver  land'  —  since  called  the  Lawrence  pas- 
ture—  seven  acres  of  'mead  land,*  and  some  ten 
acres  of '  flint  land/  Considerable  property  was  also 
left  in  Groton  and  Townsend."  The  dwelling-house 
is  thus  described :  "It  was  a  low-studded  two-story 
building  ...  a  modest  abode,  with  whitewashed 
walls  and  sanded  floors  and  plain  furniture.  There 
was  but  one  carpet  in  the  house,  and  that  was  in 
the  'west  chamber,'"  the  chamber  looking  towards 


sary  discourse  (p.  22)  Mr.  Bradley,  the  successor  of  Mr.  Lawrence  in 
the  sixth  remove,  reports  a  legend  to  the  following  effect  :  "  Toward 
the  end  of  his  ministry  one  of  [Mr.  Lawrence's]  flock,  remarking  upon 
his  evident  prosperity,  asked  him  in  a  jesting  way  how  it  was  that  he 
got  on  so  well.  To  which  Mr.  Lawrence  replied,  *  By  minding  my 
own  business,  and  letting  yours  alone.'  "  The  incident  Is  apocryphal  5 
but  it  is  given  as  illustrating  Mr.  Lawrence's  "sense  of  humor."  It 
may,  however,  perhaps  be  questioned  whether  the  "member  of  his 
flock,"  to  whom  the  reply  was  addressed,  saw  at  once  the  humorous 
aspect  of  the  retort. 

48 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

Concord.  "  The  parlor  contained  a  mahogany  table, 
a  walnut  desk,  a  little  round  tea-table,  six  leathern- 
seated  chairs,  a  few  books  of  divinity,  and  the  family 
Bible.  .  .  .  The '  common  room '  had  an  eight-day 
clock,  a  looking-glass,  and  a  light-stand.  .  .  .  The 
kitchen  had  the  usual  capacious  fireplace,  with  its 
blazing  light  reflected  from  double  rows  of  shining 
pewter."  From  the  parlor  we  pass  into  the  minis- 
ter's study,  —  the  work  room  in  which  the  busy 
pen  wrote  out  those  seventy  sermons  in  the  average 
year.  In  it  were  some  two  hundred  volumes,  largely 
quartos  and  folios, — sermons,  theology  and  commen- 
taries ;  those  forgotten  gravestones  of  a  buried  past 
of  which  Hallam,  the  English  historian,  wrote  — 
"  They  belong  no  more  to  man,  but  to  the  worm, 
the  moth,  and  the  spider.  Their  dark  and  ribbed 
backs,  their  yellow  leaves,  their  thousand  folio  pages, 
do  not  more  repel  us  than  the  unprofitableness  of 
their  substance."  Of  general  literature  there  was  lit- 
tle. Poetry  was  represented  by  the  wholly  forgotten 
Blackmore,  and  the  lighter  prose  by  eight  volumes 
of  the  "Spectator."  Of  history  there  was  little, — 
the  recently  published  "  Massachusetts"  of  Thomas 
Hutchinson,  and  the  ubiquitous  Rollin,  that  also  then 
a  new  work.  But  among  the  first  Lincoln  minister's 
collections  one  searches  in  vain  for  the  names  of 
Shakespeare  or  Dryden  or  Bunyan  or  Pope  or 
De  Foe,  or  even  for  that  of  the  Puritan  laureate, 
John  Milton. 

And  now,  having  made  the  acquaintance  of  the 
minister  and  his  wife  in  their  dwelling,  let  us  walk 

49 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

down  the  hill  to  the  meeting-house,  at  the  cross- 
roads. However  it  may  have  been  in  the  beginning 
and  in  precinct  days,  one  of  the  first  acts  of  Lincoln 
town  was  to  provide  for  the  "  building  a  steeple  for 
the  hanging  a  bell  for  the  town's  use."  "  The  old 
Meeting-house,"  we  are  told,  "  was  nearly  square, 
and  was  entered  by  three  porches,  the  front  porch 
being  on  the  southerly  side.  The  [square]  tower  in 
which  the  bell  was  hung,  and  on  which  thie  spire 
stood,  was  at  the  westerly  end,  as  the  gables  ran,  and 
another  porch  at  the  easterly  end,  a  part  of  which 
was  occupied  by  the  stocks,  made  of  heavy  oaken 
planks."  '  Inside,  the  body  of  the  edifice  was  filled 
with  long  benches,  —  the  women  sitting  on  one  side, 
the  men  on  the  other.  On  the  outside  of  these,  and 
against  the  walls,  were  pews,  built  by  permission 
and  at  the  cost  of  the  owners  thereof,  —  Chambers 
Russell  being  the  first  privileged  "  to  choose  a  place 
for  his  pew  in  the  meeting-house  where  he  pleases,  and 
build  it  when  he  pleases."  He  selected  the  space 
on  the  right  of  the  front  entrance,  nearest  the  door. 
From  time  to  time  permission  was  asked,  and  for- 
mally given,  to  construct  windows  at  the  cost  and 
for  the  benefit  of  privileged  pew  owners,  through 
which  the  proprietor,  we  are  told,  wearying  with  the 
discourse,  would  sometimes  stand  and  view  the  outer 


»  Drake,  in  his  Old  Landmarks  (^  Boston  (p.  92),  says  :  *'In  front 
of  the  old  meeting-house  stood  the  whipping-post,  and  probably  the 
stocks.  .  .  .  Both  were  used  as  a  means  of  enforcing  attendance,  or 
punishing  offences  against  the  church,  and  their  location  at  its  very 
portal  served,  no  doubt,  as  a  gentle  reminder  to  the  congregation." 

50 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

world,  his  back  to  pulpit,  sounding-board  and  min- 
ister. In  the  early  days,  when  printed  books  were 
scarce,  it  was  the  custom,  after  the  minister  gave  out 
the  hymn,  for  him  —  or  for  the  precentor,  as  he  was 
designated  in  the  Church  of  England  hierarchy,  here 
called  chorister  —  to  read  the  psalm  line  by  line  to 
the  congregation,  which  then  sang  it.  In  Lincoln 
this  practice  was  discontinued  in  1789  ;  but,  eighteen 
years  earlier,  in  1771,  forty-two  persons  "who  had 
attained  a  good  understanding  in  the  rules  of  sing- 
ing "  were,  by  vote  of  the  town,  seated  together  as 
a  choir  on  the  lower  floor.  While  the  experiment 
apparently  gave  general  satisfaction,  to  Mr.  Law- 
rence's successor.  Dr.  Charles  Stearns,  it  was  a  source 
of  special  pleasure ;  for,  among  his  other  endow- 
ments, that  faithful  divine  seems  to  have  been  blessed 
with  an  ear,  as  well  as  a  soul,  for  music.  On  this 
topic  he  even  warmed  into  eloquence  ;  and,  though 
it  must  be  admitted  extracts  from  sermons  do  not 
as  a  rule  tend  to  enliven,  there  are  passages  in  one 
discourse  of  his  which  throw  such  gleams  of  light  on 
several  points  of  interest  that  quotation  at  length  is 
justified.  The  sermon  in  question  was  preached  here 
in  Lincoln,  and  on  this  site,  upon  the  19th  of  April, 
1792,  —  as  near  as  may  be  a  century  and  twelve 
years  since, — at  "  An  Exhibition  of  Sacred  Music." 
Not  a  soul  then  living  in  Lincoln  now  survives. 
Addressing  the  "  brethren  and  sisters  of  the  choir," 
Mr.  Stearns  exclaimed,  "  With  pleasure  have  we 
beheld  your  zeal,  and  the  animated  diHgence  of  your 
teacher.    We  have  often  had  our  ears  refreshed  by 

51 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

your  agreeable  performances.  .  .  .  When  sounds 
bold  and  strong  have  set  forth  the  majesty,  the 
power  and  eternity  of  God,  when  lofty  notes  cele- 
brated his  glories  *  which  transcend  the  sky,'  when 
menacing  tones  have  shown  the  dangers  of  the 
wicked  *  on  slippery  rocks  ready  to  fall  into  ruin,' 
when  tender  and  plaintive  accents  called  our  atten- 
tion to  '  Jesus  nailed  to  the  tree,'  when  voices  softer 
than  the  gentlest  breeze  expressed  the  care  of  Jesus 
over  his  flock,  '  hearing  their  prayers,  and  wiping 
their  tears  away,'  such  touches,  so  true  to  nature, 
could  not  fail.  Mute  attention,  expressive  features, 
and  melting  eyes  declared  the  sensations  of  the 
assembly.  To  you  we  owe  the  revival  of  sacred 
music  in  this  place,  which  had  well-nigh  slept  in 
silence.  So  long  had  our  harps  hung  upon  the 
willows,  that  we  began  to  fear  that  they  would  be 
wholly  useless.  But  the  songs  of  Zion  are  revived, 
and  sweeter  than  before." 

But  in  this  same  discourse  of  Mr.  Stearns  there 
are  other  passages  of  much  significance.  The  worthy 
minister  not  only  actually  quotes  familiar  lines  from 
the  "  Merchant  of  Venice,"  —  and  apparently  from 
memory,  as  he  fails  to  quote  correctly,  —  but  he  cites 
James  Thomson's  now  forgotten  poem  of  "Sum- 
mer" as  evidence  of  the  high  estimation  in  which  the 
bard  of  Avon  was  then  held  by  all  Britons  :  — 

"  Is  not  wild  Shakespeare  thine  and  Nature's  boast  ?  " 

It  was  Charles  Lamb  who  in  one  of  the  "  Essays  of 
Elia  "  confessed  to  being  wholly  devoid  of  an  ear  for 

52 


The  Farrar  House 
(p.  216) 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

music,  —  to  save  his  life,  he  could  not  have  turned 
the  most  familiar  of  airs,  —  a  not  uncommon  defi- 
ciency ;  and  now  Mr.  Stearns,  by  nature  tolerant, 
threw  the  veil  of  an  all-enveloping  charity  even  over 
Charles  Lamb,  and  those  in  this  respect  his  like. 
Finally,  he  flashes  a  gleam  of  suggestive  light  upon 
the  manners  and  bearing  of  some  who  would  seem 
even  at  that  period  to  have  attended  the  sanctuary  in 
a  spirit  the  reverse  of  devout  edification.  The  passage 
is  as  delightful  as  it  is  quaint :  "  From  the  ease  with 
which  minds,  susceptible  of  the  pleasures  of  musick, 
receive  moral  and  religious  impressions,  some  have 
been  led  to  consider  insensibility  to  musick  as  the 
sign  of  a  bad  heart.  Shakespeare,  whom  the  people 
of  Britain  almost  adore,  and  consider  as  an  oracle  in 
the  knowledge  of  human  nature,'  saith,  — 

*  He  that  hath  no  musick  in  himself. 
And  is  not  mov'  d  with  concord  of  sweet  sounds. 
Is  fit  for  treasons.'  * 

"  Yet  let  us  while  we  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  musick, 
be  charitable  to  those  who  are  deprived  of  them. 
Reason  tells  us  that  dullness  to  the  charms  of  musick 
is  no  more  evidence  of  a  bad  heart  than  to  be  deaf, 
blind,  or  dumb.  In  some  cases  it  is  a  natural  defect. 
In  others,  a  habit  of  sedateness  has  quenched  the  fire 

'  FzV^  Thomson's  Seasons j  **  Summer,"  ver.  1563. 
*  The  correct  reading  is, 

"  The  man  that  hath  no  music  in  himself, 
Nor  is  not  mov'd  by  concord  of  sweet  sounds, 
Is  fit  for  treasons,  stratagems  and  spoils." 

Merchant  of  Venice ^  Act  V,  Sc.  i. 

53 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

of  imagination.  It  is  related  of  a  German  mathema- 
tician, that  attending  the  King  of  Prussia's  opera, 
where  musick  was  in  its  highest  perfection,  he  busied 
himself  in  measuring  the  height  and  breadth  of  the 
room,  and  in  calculating  the  distance  to  which  the 
human  voice  might  be  distinctly  heard.  Then,  when 
he  had  done  this,  finding  nothing  else  entertaining 
for  him,  he  left  the  audience  abruptly.  Such  an  in- 
stance, to  the  lovers  of  the  Muse,  will  seem  almost 
miraculous. 

"Yet  this  person  behaved  himself  much  better 
than  many  others,  who,  not  less  insensible,  are  yet 
less  innocent.  They  disturb  the  most  subUme  per- 
formances, in  honor  of  Christ  and  of  God,  by  mov- 
ing from  place  to  place  in  the  assembly,  by  jesting, 
laughing  and  tumult.  If  indeed  it  be,  that  such 
have  no  relish  for  sacred  musick,  they  ought,  in 
point  of  civility,  not  to  disturb  the  holy  pleasures 
of  others." 

To  return  to  the  choir  —  the  forty-two  persons 
"who  had  attained  a  good  understanding  in  the  rules 
of  singing ;  "  —  these  were  at  first  assigned  seats  in  the 
rear  of  the  main  floor,  although  galleries  had  already 
been  built  around  three  sides  of  the  interior ;  but 
not  until  a  later  day  were  the  ceilings  under  the  floors 
of  these  galleries  plastered.  Occupied  during  the 
hours  of  Sabbath  service,  mostly  by  boys,  or  by  the 
town  poor,  and  its  Africans,  the  galleries  were  looked 
upon  as  undesirable,  —  to  sit  in  them  was  an  indica- 
tion of  inferiority.  So,  not  until  after  the  town  had 
been  forty  years  incorporated,  and  the  church  had  at 

54 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

last  given  a  hesitating  consent  to  the  innovation  of 
a  bass  viol  to  assist  the  singers,  could  the  choir  be 
reconciled  to  a  place  in  the  gallery,  facing  the  pulpit. 
Shattuck,  in  his  history  of  Concord,  asserts  that,  in 
Lincoln,  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  was  first  in- 
troduced as  a  part  of  the  Sunday  exercises  by  Mr. 
Lawrence,  in  1763;  and,  in  1768,  a  short  prayer 
before  the  reading.  Later,  and  in  the  Stearns  pas- 
torate, the  services  were  much  the  same  as  those 
with  which  we  are  familiar  —  the  short  and  long 
prayers,  the  singing  of  the  psalms,  and  a  discourse 
by  the  pastor,  the  assigned  limit  of  which  last  was, 
however,  not  thirty  minutes,  as  now,  but  a  full 
hour. 

Such  were  the  meeting-house  and  the  services ; 
the  audience, —  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  town !  The 
Sabbath  was  the  day  of  leisure,  —  the  holiday  of 
the  week,  though  a  very  silent  and  solemn  one,  — 
the  single  break  in  that  life-long  monotony.  It  is  a 
thing  of  history  now,  remembered  only  by  those  in 
the  decline  of  life ;  the  Civil  War  is  the  dividing 
line:  but  no  one  who  passed  a  childhood  during  the 
first  half  of  the  last  century  can  fail  to  recall  that 
Sunday  stillness,  —  a  quiet  so  intense,  so  unbroken, 
that  even  animal  life  seemed  to  observe  it ;  so  com- 
plete that  it  was  actually  audible.  The  bicycle,  the 
carriage  and  the  automobile  have  made  of  it  a  tradi- 
tion ;  but  it  prevailed  here  in  Lincoln  for  a  whole 
century  after  incorporation,  and,  during  that  period, 
the  meeting-house  was  for  those  then  here  dwelling 
all  that  the  town-hall,  the  theatre,  the  lecture-room, 

55 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

the  library,  the  Sunday  paper  and  the  periodical  are 
to  us  of  the  world  as  it  now  is.  Of  the  six  hundred 
and  ninety  persons  who  composed  the  population 
of  the  town  at  its  incorporation,  probably  five  hun- 
dred usually  gathered  for  worship.  The  old  and  the 
young,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  bond  and  the  free, 
the  wise  and  the  simple,  the  halt  and  the  lame,  the 
blind  and  the  palsied,  —  all  were  at  meeting.  They 
came  on  foot  and  on  horseback.  There  were  no  car- 
riages in  those  days ;  but,  summer  and  winter,  farm 
wagons  and  rude  country-side  vehicles  trooped  in, 
laden  with  those  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages,  the  dog 
trotting  demurely  alongside,  and,  on  rare  occasions, 
to  the  huge  delight  of  the  boys  in  the  gallery,  indul- 
ging in  unseemly  fights,  to  the  great  disturbance  of 
worshippers.  To  keep  dogs  out  of  the  meeting-house 
during  divine  service  was  in  this  country,  as  in  Eng- 
land, not  infrequently  made  the  function  of  a  special 
officer.  But,  even  on  the  Sabbath, "  goin'  to  meetin'  " 
served  other  ends  than  worship.  It  was  the  time  and 
place  of  social  gathering.  The  old  meeting-house 
was  then  the  centre  of  a  lively  scene,  people  gather- 
ing in  groups  around  the  three  porches,  the  sheds 
on  both  sides  of  the  road  would  be  full  of  vehicles 
while  others  were  hitched  to  neighboring  posts,  and 
often  the  flanks  of  the  hill  were  dotted  with  wagons. 
On  rainy  Sundays  Dr.  Stearns,  they  used  to  assev- 
erate, could  be  depended  upon  to  preach  his  best.' 
Going  to  meeting,  those  dwelling  more  remotely 

*  Mr.   Porter's   Discourse,  Proceedings   on  the   One  Hundred  and 
Fiftieth  Anninjersary,  p.  76. 

56 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

shut  up  their  houses,  took  with  them  their  food, 
and  made  a  day  of  it.  These  were  those  Sabbath 
"noonings"  to  which  Mr.  Bradley,  in  his  anniver- 
sary discourse,  properly  and  truly  refers,'  as  not  the 
least  important  feature  of  the  Lord's  day.  It  was 
"  the  only  occasion  during  the  week  when  the  scat- 
tered neighbors  had  an  opportunity  of  exchanging  " 
greetings  and  news ;  and  there  is  no  sort  of  ques- 
tion that  "  this  friendly  hour  had  as  much  influence 
as  any  enactment  of  the  State  in  securing  the  gen- 
eral attendance  of  all  inhabitants  at  the  meeting- 
house from  Sunday  to  Sunday."  In  the  case  of 
Lincoln,  moreover,  it  was  this  which  decided  the 
placing  of  the  meeting-house,  and,  subsequently,  the 
site  of  the  village.  Lincoln  hill  was  not  convenient ; 
it  was  not  on  the  line  of  least  resistance  for  travel ;  it 
was  not  in  the  beginning  accessible :  but  it  was  cen- 
tral; it  was  almost  equidistant  from  the  two  great 
thoroughfares  which  crossed  the  precinct  near  its 
northern  and  southern  limits.  Even  now,  a  century 
and  a  half  after  the  town's  incorporation,  there  is 
not  a  single  dwelling  on  either  the  Walden  road  or 
the  Sandy  Pond  road  for  a  space  of  a  mile  and  a  half 
between  the  westernmost  dwellings  of  Lincoln  and 
the  easternmost  of  Concord.  It  was  then  much  the 
same  in  the  direction  of  Weston  and  Lexington. 
Thus  the  one  great  wish  of  that  community  was  to 
fix  on  some  common  central  spot  where  once  a  week 
they  could  congregate.  This  they  found  on  the  south- 
ern slope  of  Lincoln  hill ;    and   there  they  placed 

»  Proceedings  on  the  One  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anni'versary,  p.  27. 

57 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

the  meeting-house.  It  was  in  the  beginning  a  mere 
site.  There  was  not,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to 
ascertain,  a  single  established  public  way  affording 
access  to  it.  It  could  be  reached  only  on  sufferance 
and  through  farm  lanes,  and  by  private  ways.  This, 
of  course,  was  soon  remedied,  and,  ultimately,  the 
village  grew  up  at  the  cross-roads ;  but,  unlike  al- 
most any  other  Massachusetts  town  in  that  respect, 
Lincoln  village  has  no  cause  whatever  for  its  being 
except  the  one  forgotten  fact  that,  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago,  it  was  a  central  point  for  the  Sabbath 
gathering  of  a  scattered  population,  few  of  whom 
lived  more  than  "two  miles  and  a  quarter"  there- 
from. 

Here,  then,  they  met  in  every  season  of  the  year, 
—  spring  and  autumn,  summer  and  winter.  In  the 
winter  it  could  not  have  been  otherwise  than  trying. 
The  ways  were  bad  and  heavy ;  the  meeting-house 
unwarmed ;  out-of-door  movement  was  under  em- 
bargo. Later,  when  air-tight  stoves  came  into  use, 
great  pieces  of  peat  were  stowed  away  in  them  to 
keep  a  slow,  safe  fire  in  the  deserted  house  till  the 
return  of  the  family,  as  the  short  winter  day  drew 
towards  nightfall.  How  the  congregation  bore  the 
deadly  chilliness  of  the  barn-like  edifice  it  is  not  easy 
to  understand.  The  introduction  of  stoves  was  agi- 
tated here  in  Lincoln  during  the  earlier  years  of 
the  last  century,  but  Dr.  Stearns,  then  pastor,  set 
his  face  against  the  innovation.  It  might  extend  life 
and  reduce  the  cases  of  lung  fever,  as  pneumonia  was 
called,  but  the  fathers   had  not  found  any  heating 

5.8 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

apparatus  necessary,  and  the  world  got  along  very 
well  then  ;  so  he  hoped  no  appliances  for  heating 
would  be  introduced  as  long  as  he  lived.'  During 
the  winter,  therefore,  those  who  could  not  find  a 
friendly  shelter  in  the  scattered  dwelHngs  about  the 
hill,  did  not  attend  meeting,  —  they  remained  per- 
force at  home  ;  but  it  was  otherwise  during  half  the 
year  at  least.  Then,  in  spring,  summer,  or  autumn, 
weather  permitting,  all  the  youth  of  Lincoln  wan- 
dered in  parties  along  the  roads  and  through  the 
meadows,  down  by  Sandy  Pond  and  the  brooklets, 
and  there  the  young  men  met  the  maidens,  and 
through  generations  the  most  momentous  question 
of  life  was  then  wont  to  be  put,  and  the  answer  to  it 
given.  By  the  older  and  more  sedate,  the  news  of 
the  day  was  canvassed,  and  the  issues  of  politics  de- 
bated; on  the  porch  and  about  the  meeting-house 
—  there,  during  the  first  year  of  the  Hfe  of  the  town, 
the  bloody  defeat  of  Braddock  was  discussed ;  and, 

'  Mr.  Porter's  Discourse,  p.  75.  Dr.  Steams  died  July  26,  1826. 
The  warrant  for  the  next  annual  town-meeting  bore  date  February  1 9, 
1827.    In  it  was  the  following  :  — 

"Article  7.  To  know  the  pleasure  of  the  Town  respecting  the  Stove 
lately  put  up  in  the  Publick  Meetinghouse  —  Whether  the  Town  will 
Defray  the  Expense  of  the  same,  or  any  part  thereof,  or  give  leave  to 
have  it  remain  where  it  is,  or  adopt  any  measures  respecting  said  stove, 
and  provid  wood  for  the  same,  also  provid  Storage  for  the  wood  in  the 
Meetinghouse  as  tlie  Town  see  fit  and  say  how  it  shall  be  taken  care  of 
and  by  whom.    .   .    . 

**  Voted  to  have  the  Stove  remain  in  the  Publick  Meetinghouse  in 
Lincoln  where  it  now  is,  and  voted  the  Congregational  or  religious 
society  in  said  Town  pay  the  Expence  of  said  Stove.  Also  voted  the 
selectmen  provide  wood,  and  a  place  for  the  storage  of  the  wood  to  be 
used  or  burnt  when  necessary  to  have  fire  in  said  Stove.'* 

59 


THE  TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

a  little  later,  the  events  and  vicissitudes  of  the  Seven 
Years*  War.  Then,  in  1757,  the  massacre  of  Fort 
George,  and,  in  1758,  the  repulse  of  Abercrombie 
at  Ticonderoga  spread  a  panic  through  Massachu- 
setts, a  thrill  of  which  doubtless  found  expression  at 
Lincoln  ;  Wolfe's  death  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham 
followed,  with  the  fall  of  Quebec  and  the  English 
conquest  of  Canada;  and,  at  last,  before  the  town 
was  yet  in  its  "teens,"  came  the  close  of  the  "old 
French  War."  Subsequently,  in  1765,  the  Stamp  Act 
was  uppermost  in  mind,  with  that  long  succession 
of  issues  culminating  for  Lincoln  with  the  19th  of 
April,  1775.  Then,  for  the  only  time  in  its  history 
as  a  town,  the  smoke  of  an  enemy's  camp-fire  curled 
up  within  Lincoln  limits. 

In  every  way,  that  revolutionary  period  seems  to 
have  been  one  of  sore  tribulation  for  the  town ;  and, 
as  was  always  apt  to  be  the  case,  the  trouble  cen- 
tred on  the  meeting-house  porch,  and  there  found 
expression.  It  was  a  civil  trouble ;  and,  as  was  tra- 
ditionally proper,  the  Church  was  divided  against 
itself  The  Rev.  Mr.  Lawrence  was  even  suspected  of 
insufficient  patriotism.  To  such  a  ripeness  did  this 
suspicion  grow,  that,  greatly  to  his  indignation,  his 
private  letters  were  tampered  with  by  the  so-called 
Committee  of  Safety.  A  crisis  seems  to  have  been 
reached  during  the  autumn  of  1774,  —  the  months 
following  the  Boston  tea-party,  and  the  closing  of 
the  port  of  Boston.  One  Sabbath  morning  during 
that  season,  the  Lincoln  air,  tense  with  excitement, 
was,  it  is  said,  full  of  rumors.    The  people  gathered 

60 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

about  the  meeting-house  at  an  unwonted  hour,  and 
there  was  talk  of  not  allowing  the  minister  to  enter 
his  pulpit.  More  neighborly  and  wiser  counsels  pre- 
vailed ;  but  the  closing  years  of  the  Lawrence  pas- 
torate were  troubled.  Indeed,  the  unhappy  minister 
seems  to  have  been  worried  into  his  grave  ;  for,  while 
he  died  in  April,  1780,  only  a  year  previous  he  had 
been  arraigned  at  three  successive  church  meetings 
because  of  "  a  jealousy  "  that  he  had  "  not  been 
friendly  to  his  country  in  respect  to  the  contest  be- 
tween Great  Britain  and  America."  After  much 
wrangling  it  had  been  decided  "  by  a  great  majority  " 
to  "  drop  the  affair  in  dispute,"  the  "  circumstances 
and  particular  instances  "  alleged  appearing  on  ex- 
amination "  trifling  and  insufficient."  '  That  Mr. 
Lawrence  was  a  Tory  has  been  denied,  and  certainly 
was  not  proven  :  but  it  is  clear  that  he  was  far  from 
being  an  ardent  patriot;  and,  at  a  time  when  his 
parishioners  were  thoroughly  aroused  by  great  events 
transpiring,  he  "  halted  for  a  time  between  two  opin- 
ions, and  allowed  his  trumpet  to  give  an  uncertain 
sound." 

But,  as  I  have  said,  the  story  of  Lincoln  church 

*  The  One  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anni<versary  Proceedings y  p.  23. 
The  Rev.  Micah  Lawrence,  a  cousin  of  William  Lawrence,  a  graduate 
of  Harvard  in  the  class  of  1759,  who  taught  school  in  Lincoln  for  a 
time  shortly  after  graduation,  was  a  pronounced  loyalist.  R.  M.  Law- 
rence's Historical  Sketches,  p.  84.  Chambers  Russell  was  dead,  but  his 
nephew.  Dr.  Charles  Russell,  who  had  inherited  his  uncle's  place  in 
Lincoln,  practising  here  as  a  physician,  was  a  pronounced  Tory,  and 
in  1775  went  to  Martinique.  He  left  Lincoln  on  the  19th  of  April, 
1775,  —  an  extremely  suggestive  coincidence. 

61 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

has  been  written  ;  and  for  me  now  to  repeat  it  would 
be  but  to  tell  once  more  an  already  twice-told  tale. 
Yet  Lincoln  was  first  organized  as  a  church  precinct, 
and  its  political  incorporation  did  not  greatly  alter 
the  original  purpose.  For  a  whole  century  the  his- 
tory of  its  church  was  the  history  of  Lincoln ;  and, 
as  contrasted  with  other  and  neighboring  towns,  — 
its  sisters  of  the  Massachusetts  family,  —  I  cannot 
here  find,  after  its  first  pastorate,  anything  distinctive. 
The  initial  period  —  the  Lawrence  regime,  if  it  may 
be  so  termed  —  was  individual,  and  more  or  less  per- 
turbed :  but  it  carried  the  town  practically  through 
the  revolutionary  troubles,  for  the  second  pastor  was 
not  installed  (November  7, 1781)  until  a  month  after 
that  momentous  19th  of  October  which  witnessed 
the  surrender  at  Yorktown.  Thenceforth,  and  for 
nearly  ninety  years,  the  life  of  Lincoln  presented  no 
features  peculiar  to  itself.  Its  story  is  one  of  mono- 
tonous existence,  —  the  slow  development  of  a  Mas- 
sachusetts community,  exclusively  agricultural.  It 
can  be  studied  in  the  records  of  its  town-meetings,  its 
schools,  and  its  churches  ;  and,  perhaps,  most  clearly 
of  all,  in  the  annual  tax  levy. 

In  his  poem  entitled  "  The  Deacon's  Masterpiece, 
or  The  Wonderful  '  One-Hoss  Shay,'  "  —  and  that 
famous  conveyance,  let  me  in  passing  observe,  was 
built,  we  are  told,  in  the  year  (1755)  following  the 
incorporation  of  your  town,  —  it  and  Lincoln  thus 
came  into  organized  being  within  nineteen  months  of 
each  other,  —  in  his  well-known  poem,  I  was  saying, 
Dr.  Holmes  remarks,  truly  enough, — 

62 


A  MILESTONE   PLANTED 

'*  Little  of  all  we  value  here 
Wakes  on  the  mom  of  its  hundredth  year 
f  Without  both  feeling  and  looking  queer  ; ' ' 

and  so  it  is  always  interesting,  and  usually  suggestive, 
to  revert  to  an  exact  century  since.  This  being  1904, 
what  was  Lincoln's  record  in  1804?  Let  us  hunt  it 
up  in  the  town-books.  Lincoln  then  had  a  popu- 
lation of  740  souls;  it  now  has  iioo.  Its  entire 
annual  appropriations  in  1804,  exclusive  of  the  min- 
ister's salary  and  the  rent  of  his  house,  amounted  to 
$1410,  or  I1.90  to  each  inhabitant;  they  last  year 
aggregated  ^21,673,  or  ?  19.70  to  each  inhabitant, 
almost  exactly  a  tenfold  increase.  The  school  sys- 
tem of  the  town  then  involved  an  annual  outlay  of 
I500  ;  last  year  it  cost  I6500.  For  maintenance  of 
its  roads  the  town  voted  in  1804  the  sum  of  I400; 
this  year  it  calls  for  ^4000,  last  year  it  cost  $6000. 
Our  poor  and  insane  last  year  cost  us  $1000;  in 
1804  the  sum  of  J500  was  required.  But  of  this 
item  in  town  expenditure  I  shall  have  more  to  say 
presently.  Meanwhile,  looking  over  the  lists  of 
officials  of  the  two  years  a  century  apart,  it  is  curious 
to  observe  how  the  same  names  appear.  In  1804 
they  had  seven  town-meetings ;  we  last  year  got 
along  with  three.  A  century  ago  Samuel  Hoar  was, 
when  present,  the  moderator ;  in  his  absence.  Dea- 
con Samuel  Farrar.  None  of  the  name  of  Hoar 
now  live  in  Lincoln ;  but  it  is  inseparably  associated 
with  the  mother  town,  and  the  Samuel  Hoar  of  the 
present  generation  was  selected  to  address  you  to- 
day; only  when  he,  after  long  deliberation  and  with 

63 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

strongly  expressed  regret,  felt  constrained  to  decline, 
did  I  assume  the  duty.  It  was  well;  for  he  has  since 
fallen  by  the  wayside.  Ten  days  only  have  passed 
since  we  witnessed  his  obsequies.' 

Recurring  to  the  record  of  1804,  a  Wheeler  was 
then  town-clerk.  A  Brooks  was  a  selectman ;  while 
among  the  other  officials  appear  the  names  of  Flint, 
Bemis,  Baker,  Hartwell,  and  Tarbell.  Samuel  Hoar 
that  year  represented  the  town  in  the  General  Court, 
having  received  twenty-seven  votes  as  against  thir- 
teen thrown  for  Samuel  Farrar,  and  two  for  Captain 
J.  Hartwell.  But  1804  was  also  the  year  of  a 
national  election,  and  Thomas  Jefferson  was  chosen 
for  a  second  term.  Prior  to  1804  the  Massachu- 
setts presidential  electors  had,  as  a  rule,  been  named 
by  the  General  Court,  as  was  the  early  practice  in 
most  of  the  States  ;  but,  in  1 804,  they  were  chosen 
directly  by  the  people.  Throughout  the  troubled 
period  of  the  Napoleonic  wars,  Lincoln  seems  to 
have  been  a  strong  Republican,  or  Anti-Federalist, 
town ;  so,  this  year,  its  vote  was  sixty-six  for  the 
Jefferson  ticket,  to  eighteen  for  the  electors  pledged 
to  vote  for  Charles  C.  Pinckney,  the  candidate  of  the 
Federalists. 

*  Both  Senator  George  Frisbie  Hoar  and  Samuel  Hoar  were  invited 
to  deliver  the  address  on  this  occasion.  Each  felt  obliged  to  decline:  — 
Senator  Hoar,  who  had  passed  much  of  his  earlier  life  in  Lincoln,  and 
entertained  a  feeling  of  warm  affection  for  the  town,  because  of  that 
failing  health  which  proved  premonitory  of  his  death  on  the  30th  of  the 
following  September  j  Samuel  Hoar,  then  in  his  sixtieth  year,  was  taken 
suddenly  ill,  with  a  cerebral  difficulty,  early  in  April  preceding  this 
anniversary,  and,  dying  at  Concord  on  Monday,  the  i  ith  of  that  month, 
was  there  buried  on  the  1 3th. 

64 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

A  hundred  years  ago  no  steps  had  yet  been  taken 
to  separate  church  from  state.  As  it  had  been  from 
the  beginning,  so  was  it  still  —  congregation  and 
town  were  one;  and,  in  1804,  stimulated  probably 
by  the  minister,  there  was  in  Lincoln,  not  a  religious 
or  political  movement,  but,  much  less  open  to  ques- 
tion, a  singing  revival.  At  the  same  time  the  inte- 
rior arrangements  of  the  meeting-house  were  in  ques- 
tion. So  the  two  matters,  taken  up  together,  were 
dealt  with  comprehensively,  —  in  a  large  way,  as  we 
would  express  it.  In  the  first  place,  an  appropria- 
tion was  voted  for  the  "  incouragement  of  Church 
Music ;  "  and,  next,  a  special  gallery  was  planned, 
"  to  convene  the  singers."  The  town  was,  however, 
thrifty ;  the  period  of  municipal  extravagance  was 
still  in  the  remote  future,  and  it  was  planned  that 
the  alterations  in  the  interior  of  the  meeting-house 
were  not  only  to  pay  for  themselves,  but  should  bring 
a  handsome  surplus  into  the  treasury.  The  votes 
then  passed  in  town-meeting,  the  reports  made  and 
the  action  taken,  are  curiously  illustrative  of  the 
little  republic,  and  the  business-like  way  in  which 
its  affairs  were  managed.  To-day,  they  constitute  a 
study  in  polity.* 

»  December  12,  1803  (vol.  ii,  p.  494)  :  "Voted,  to  do  something 
to  incourage  Church  music  in  this  place/*  Then,  "Voted,  that  the 
sum  of  Fifty  Dollars  be  assessed  and  paid  by  the  inhabitants  of  this 
Town  for  the  incouragement  of  Church  Music."  Then,  "Voted  to 
choose  a  Committee  to  take  from  the  Treasury  and  lay  out  the  fifty 
dollars  to  the  best  advantage  to  incourage  singing  —  and  made  choice 
of  Sam' 1  Hoar,  Esq.,  Thos.  Wheeler,  Capt.  Abner  Mather,  Elij.  Fisk 
and  Eleazer  Brooks,  Jr." 

65 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

As  a  result  of  the  simply  planned  meeting-house 
alterations,  sixteen  additional  pews  were  provided, 
"  twelve  Pews  in  the  Gallery  in  said  House  which 
are  numbered  and  four  Pews  on  the  lower  floor ;  " 
and  all  these  it  was  ordered  "  shall  be  sold  at  pub- 
lick  Vendue  to  the  highest  bidder."  They  were  so 
sold,  the  town-meeting  adjourning  that  the  auction 
might  take  place. 

The  financial  outcome  of  the  "  Vendue  "  seems 
to  have  exceeded  the  most  sanguine  expectations. 

May  7,  1804:  "Voted,  to  accommodate  the  Singing  Society  with 
convenient  seats  in  the  Front  Gallery." 

"To  act  on  a  Refer' d  Article,  which  is  to  hear  the  report  of  their 
Committee  Chosen  by  the  Town,  for  the  purpose  of  viewing  the 
Meeting  House  in  order  that  the  Singers  may  be  accommodated  with 
convenient  seats." 

The  Committee  report  as  follows  :  "  We  the  Subscribers  being 
Chosen  a  Committee  at  the  last  Town  Meeting  in  order  to  see  which 
is  the  best  way  to  finish  the  front  gallery  in  order  to  convene  the  singers, 
and  to  take  under  consideration  the  first  article  —  beg  leave  to  report 
as  follows  :  —  It  is  our  opinion  that  it  is  best  to  Build  a  Porch  in  the 
front  of  the  Meeting  House  12  feet  Square  and  14  feet  Posts,  and  to 
swell  the  front  Gallery,  and  build  two  convenient  seats  for  the  Singers 
—  and  to  Build  a  row  of  Pews  round  the  Gallerys,  and  to  alter  the 
porch  Doors  in  the  Gallerys  so  as  to  have  them  in  the  center  of  the 
porches  and  to  have  an  Alley  to  divide  the  Side  Gallerys  —  also  to 
build  four  Pews  below.  We  have  calculated  the  probable  expense  will 
be  450  Dollars  and  it  is  probable  the  Pews  will  fetch  900  Dollars  the 
Ballance  in  favor  of  the  Town  is  450  Dollars,  all  whfch  is  humbly 
submitted. 

"  Voted,  To  accept  the  Report  of  their  Committee. 

<*  Voted,  To  choose  a  Committee  of  Seven  to  carry  into  effect  the 
subject  matter  of  the  above  Report. 

"Made  Choice  of  Sam'l  Hoar,  Esq.,  Dea'n  Sam'l  Farrar,  Major 
Sam'l  Hastings,  Mr.  Isaac  Munro,  Doct'r  G.  Tarbell,  Mr.  Abner 
Wheeler  &  Lt.  Elijah  Fiske." 

66 


The  Codman  House 
(P- 135) 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

It  was,  it  must  be  admitted,  a  good  deal  like  sell- 
ing boxes  in  a  modern  city  opera-house ;  but  the 
demand  for  special  Sabbath  church  privileges  was, 
in  the  Lincoln  of  1 804,  unquestionably  brisk.  The 
committee  having  the  matter  in  charge  had  "  calcu- 
lated" the  expense  of  the  improvements  at  ^450, 
and  the  receipts  from  the  sale  of  new  pews  at  I900; 
resulting  in  a  "  Ballance  in  favor  of  the  Town  "  of 
$450.  The  transaction  in  fact,  when  the  "  Vendue  " 
finished,  was  found  to  have  netted  the  town  a  profit 
of  no  less  than  $762.35.  At  the  "Vendue,"  Mr. 
Amos  Bemis  —  a  family  name  since  associated  in  an- 
other and  larger  way  with  Lincoln's  public  edifices  — 
seems  to  have  become  the  owner  of  one  of  the  pews 
in  the  gallery;  for,  the  sale  having  taken  place  on  the 
loth  of  September,  the  warrant  for  the  next  town- 
meeting,  called  for  the  5th  of  November,  contained 
the  following  article  :  —  "  4th.  To  see  if  the  Town 
will  give  Liberty  to  Mr.  Amos  Bemis  to  put  in  a 
Window  in  his  Pew  in  the  Gallery  in  the  North- 
west corner  of  the  Meeting  house,  agreeable  to  his 
request."  And  presently  the  following  vote  was 
passed,  and  recorded :  —  "  4th  Article.  Granted 
Mr.  Amos  Bemis  Liberty  to  put  a  Window  in  his 
Pew  in  the  Gallery  as  Requested." 

Such  were  the  questions  which  engaged  the  atten- 
tion of  the  town  an  hundred  years  ago  ;  such  the 
scale  of  its  expenditure.  Nor,  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century,  did  any  change  take  place.  At  last,  in  1829 
the  separation  of  state  from  church  was  effected,  and 
thereafter  the  prudential  affairs  of  the  parish  did  not 

67 


THE  TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

affect  those  of  the  town.'    Accordingly,  from  1830 
to  the  present  time,  we  have  an  unbroken  record  of 

I  The  Rev.  Elijah  Demond  succeeded  Dr.  Stearns.  He  was  the 
last  pastor  called  under  the  old  system,  an'd  prior  to  the  total  separa- 
tion of  church  from  town.  The  change  in  relations  of  pastor  and  peo- 
ple which  had  already  taken  place  is  apparent  in  the  vote  in  the  Lincoln 
records.  The  town  now  did  not  seek  to  settle  a  pastor  ;  it  hired  a 
preacher.    The  article  in  the  warrant,  and  the  vote,  were  as  follows :  — 

September  5,  1827  —  **2d.  To  see  if  the  Town  will  Concur  with 
the  Church  in  giving  Rev.  Mr.  Elijah  Demond  an  invitation  to  Settle 
over  them  as  their  Gospel  Minister,  and  if  so,  to  vote  what  they  will 
give  him  for  Sallary,  annually,  and  what  incouragement  other  ways 
they  will  give.   .   .   . 

"Voted,  to  give  Rev.  Elijah  Demond  an  invitation  to  settle  over  the 
Church  and  people  of  this  Town  as  their  Gospel  Minister. 

"Also  voted  to  pay  him  for  Sallery,  annually  five  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars,  so  long  as  he  performs  his  Ministerial  labours  in  this  Town, 
with  the  provision,  that  the  connection  may  be  dissolved,  by  either 
party  giving  the  other,  six  months  notice. ' ' 

On  the  nth  of  the  following  month  (October)  another  town-meeting 
was  held,  the  warrant  for  which  contained  the  following  article  — 
<*2nd.  To  see  if  the  Town  will  make  any  alterations  in  the  conditions 
of  the  call  which  they  voted  to  give  Rev.  Mr.  Demond  at  their  last 
meeting  or  act  anything  respecting  the  same,  and  in  case  he  shall  accept 
the  call,  to  make  proper  arrangment  for  his  installation.    .   .    . 

"  Voted,  to  dispence  with  that  part  of  the  condition  in  the  Invitation 
voted  to  Rev.  Mr.  Elijah  Demond  at  the  last  Town  meeting  which 
provides  for  the  dissolution  of  connection  by  either  party  giving  the 
other  six  months  notice 

«*  Then  voted  to  reconsider  the  last  vote 

**  then  voted.  That  the  conditions  of  the  call  given  to  the  Rev'd 
Mr.  Demond  by  this  Town  at  their  last  meeting  be  so  far  altered,  that 
a  morgority  of  two-thirds  of  the  legal  voters  shall  be  necessary,  on  the 
part  of  the  Town,  to  cause  a  disolution  of  the  connection,  and  should 
such  a  majority  ever  be  obtained  ;  or  should  their  Minister,  on  his 
part,  give  notice  of  his  desire  of  dismission,  in  either  case,  a  Councill 
of  Ministers  and  delegates  from  other  Churches  shall  be  called  to 
advise  thereon.   .   .   . 

"Then  Rev'd  Mr.  Demond  excepted  the  call  voted  him  the  last 

68 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

the  amounts  annually  raised  by  taxation.  It  is  curi- 
ous and  suggestive.  During  the  five  years  between 
1834  and  1839  inclusive,  the  average  annual  levy 
was  $1,878.58.  The  first  century  of  town  life  closed, 
unnoticed  and  uncommemorated,  in  1854.  During 
the  five  ensuing  years  (i 856-1 860)  the  average 
annual  levy  was  $4100.  The  increase  of  public  ex- 
penditure during  nearly  the  lifetime  of  a  generation, 
on  account  of  roads,  schools  and  all  the  incidents  of 
corporate  existence,  had  been  but  $2200  per  annum. 
Then  came  the  Civil  War  with  its  continuous  calls 
for  men.  It  was  an  altogether  exceptional  period. 
Yet  the  money  burden  that  terrible  conflict  imposed 
on  Lincoln  was  not  considerable, — it  amounted  in 
the  aggregate  to  only  $  1 5,000,  the  average  levy  for  the 
five  years  1861  to  1865,  inclusive,  being  $7,113.80, 
or  I3000  more  than  during  the  previous  similar 
period.  Then,  for  the  next  ten  years  or  so,  town 
affairs  resumed  the  even  tenor  of  their  ancient  way, 
and  not  until  1870  is  a  change  observable.  Then, 
first  in  the  history  of  the  town  whether  in  time  of 
peace  or  in  time  of  war,  the  annual  tax  levy  passed 
the  ten  thousand  dollar  mark,  not  again  to  fall  be- 
low it.  The  older  and  simpler  existence  had  come 
to  a  natural  close,  though  one  gradually  approached, 
and  Lincoln  entered  on  a  new  and  more  highly 
developed  life. 

Let  us  for  a  moment  recur  to  the  first  period,  that 
anterior  to   1870,  and  its  annual  tax   levies.    Very 

meetings  with  the  above  mentioned  alterations  as  they  are  proposed, 
and  voted  in  his  presents,  at  this  meeting." 

69 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

simple  as  compared  with  those  of  more  recent  years, 
they  reveal  a  niggard  expenditure  and  a  most  rigid 
scrutiny.  The  amounts  are  small ;  the  accounting 
exact.  Every  item  was  jealously  observed.  The  three 
great  heads  of  outgo  were  the  roads,  the  schools, 
and  the  support  of  the  poor ;  and  it  is  very  notice- 
able how  large  a  proportion,  as  compared  with  the 
present,  the  cost  of  maintaining  the  poor  bore  to 
the  total  outgo.  It  now  constitutes  one  twenty-fifth 
part  of  it,  or  only  4  per  cent.;  in  1833,  seventy 
years  ago,  it  constituted  23  per  cent. ;  and,  in  i860, 
8  per  cent.  How  explain  this?  Lincoln  was  a 
sparsely  peopled  town ;  but  its  people  were  homo- 
geneous, thrifty,  and  fairly  well-to-do.  As  such  com- 
munities went,  it  was  moral  and  temperate,  —  nei- 
ther so  moral  nor  so  temperate  as  now,  but  in  both 
respects  probably  above  the  average  of  the  time.  In 
its  population  was  no  appreciable  foreign  element ; ' 
substantially,  it  was  pure  American  stock.  Whence 
then  this  pauperism  ?  The  answer  is  not  far  to  seek ; 
nor  is  the  page  which  reveals  it  pleasant  reading. 
It  Is  a  page  now  happily  closed. 

In  those  times,  as  now,  the  demented  were  classed 
with  the  poor.  I  have  already  alluded  to  the  fact 
that  in  its  earliest  period  Lincoln  was  without  any 
physician  who  would  now  rank  as  educated.  Later, 
the  estimable,  as  well  as  educated.  Dr.  Charles  Rus- 

'  Even  as  late  as  1875, — twenty  years  after  the  opening  of  the 
Fitchburg  raikoad,  —  no  less  than  7  7  per  cent,  of  those  inhabiting 
Lincoln  were  of  American  birth.  The  town-born  constituted  34  per 
cent,  of  the  whole. 

70 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

sell  served  the  little  community  in  that  capacity  ; 
he,  however,  was  driven  away  as  a  Tory  in  April, 
1775,  and,  five  years  later,  died  in  exile.  But,  apart 
from  physicians,  surgeons  or  trained  nurses,  I  have 
been  unable  to  find  any  evidence  of  a  drug-store  in 
the  eighteenth  century  Lincoln,  much  less  of  a  hos- 
pital. The  town  was  without  an  almshouse  also;  for, 
though  provision  for  an  almshouse  was  at  one  time 
made  through  the  bequest  of  a  public-spirited  towns- 
man, a  mere  two-room  tenement  was  forthcoming  ; 
and  this,  after  trial  of  the  experiment,  was  discon- 
tinued. Needless  then  to  say  that  Lincoln  neither 
had  an  asylum  for  the  insane  within  its  limits,  nor 
access  to  one  elsewhere.  There  is  a  curious  theory 
sometimes  advanced  that  insanity  is  in  New  England 
steadily  increasing ;  and,  in  support  of  this  disturb- 
ing contention,  the  statistics  of  former  times  are 
compared  with  those  of  the  present.  In  point  of  fact 
there  are  no  statistics  of  those  former  times.  Now  the 
insane  are  carefully  gathered  together,  enumerated, 
and  scientifically  cared  for ;  then,  they  were  ignored 
or  neglected,  and  often  brutally  abused.  They  were 
allowed,  if  harmless,  to  wander  in  the  streets,  —  the 
village  idiots  ;  or  they  were  herded  in  the  almshouse, 
if  there  chanced  to  be  an  almshouse.  Some  years 
ago  I  found  in  the  records  of  Braintree  a  vote  appro- 
priating money  to  one  Samuel  Spear  to  "  build  a 
little  house  seven  foot  long  and  fivQ  foot  wide,  and 
set  it  by  his  house  to  secure  his  sister,  good  wife 
Witty,  being  distracted,  and  provide  for  her."  The 
wretched  lunatic  was  housed  like  a  dog,  in  a  ken- 

71 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

nel  by  her  brother's  door.  And  again,  by  another 
town-record  entry  of  a  later  day,  Josiah  Owen  was 
voted  "  Twenty  pounds  money  provided  he  gives 
bond  under  his  hand  to  cleare  the  Towne  forever  of 
Ebenezer  Owen's  distracted  daughter."  What,  under 
these  circumstances,  became  of  the  unfortunate  girl, 
presumably  Josiah's  orphan  niece,  it  is  perhaps  as 
well  not  to  inquire.  But,  as  respects  the  care  of  its 
poor  and  insane,  Lincoln  then  pursued  the  usual 
course.  With  its  records  I  am  less  familiar  than 
with  the  records  of  other  Massachusetts  towns  not 
dissimilar,  and  so  cannot  quote  chapter  and  verse ; 
but  in  the  records  of  Weymouth  I  once  came  across 
the  following  action  of  the  town-meeting  of  March 
II,  1771  :  "Voted  to  sell  the  Poor  that  are  main- 
tained by  the  Town  for  this  present  year  at  a  Vendue 
to  the  lowest  bidder."  This  tells  the  whole  story, 
—  a  lamentation,  and  an   ancient  tale  of  wrong !  ' 

*  In  the  North  American  Re'vienv  for  January,  1849  (vol-  Ivi,  pp. 
171-191),  is  an  article  entitled  "Insanity  in  Massachusetts,"  written 
by  the  celebrated  Dr.  S.  G.  Howe.  In  it  he  describes  in  detail  some 
cases  of  treatment  of  the  insane  which  he  had  himself  "witnessed, 
during  the  last  three  months,  in  places  within  thirty  miles  of  Boston." 
He  found  the  demented  of  both  sexes  "in  the  almshouses,  shut  up 
in  cold  and  cheerless  rooms,  sometimes  chained  to  the  walls,  often 
confined  in  narrow  cages,  without  a  chair  or  bed,  and  with  nothing 
but  the  straw  on  which  they  lie  down  like  the  brutes.  "* '  He  cites  with 
painful  particularity  cases  exactly  parallel  to  those  of  "  good  wife 
Witty  Spear"  and  **  Ebenezer  Owen's  distracted  daughter. "  Nor  was 
this  eighteenth  century  treatment ;  it  was  the  practice  of  sixty  years 
ago.  The  cases  were,  moreover,  in  no  way  exceptional.  Dr.  Howe 
asserted  that  if  **  allowed  to  make  extracts  from  the  journal  of  a  friend, 
who  has  traversed  every  part  of  Massachusetts  on  an  errand  of  mercy 
...   we  could  fill  a  volume."    Yet  Massachusetts  was  then  already 

72 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

Lincoln,  in  the  earlier  period,  —  that  ideal  age  of 
gold  so  commonly  referred  to  as  the  "good  old 
times,"  —  having  no  almshouse  or  asylum,  farmed 
out  its  poor  and  insane.  They  were  annually  put 
up  at  auction,  and  their  care  intrusted  to  whoever 
agreed  to  assume  it,  —  undertook  to  feed,  lodge, 
clothe  and  warm  the  wretched  outcasts,  —  at  the 
lowest  rate.  Last  year,  with  an  appropriation  on 
that  account  less  than  twice  as  large  as  its  average 
appropriation  on  the  same  account  seventy  years 
ago,  Lincoln  cared  for  four  insane  dependent  upon 
it ;  the  previous  year  for  six.  Beyond  these  it  had 
no  paupers  to  support ;  —  only  tramps  to  enter- 
tain !  Nor  are  our  records  now  disfigured,  as  then 
they  were,  by  long  lists  of  entries  notifying  those 
without  visible  means  of  support  at  once  to  return 
to  the  place  whence  they  came.  Judging  by  the 
record,  eighteenth  century  charity  certainly  began  at 
home  ;  as  also  it  was  indisputably  cold.  So,  through 
all  those  years  Lincoln's  appropriation  of  J400,  or 
thereabouts,  a  year,  covered  not  only  its  charge  for 
pauperism,  but  the  cost  for  it  of  almshouse,  hospi- 

far  in  advance  among  communities,  American  or  foreign,  in  care  of 
the  insane.  Elsewhere  in  the  same  paper  (p.  183)  Dr.  Howe  says  : 
<<  Under  the  name  of  economy,  the  insane  and  idiots  of  our  own  coun- 
try have  been  and  are  now  (1843)  ^^?^  i^  *  state  of  physical  degrada- 
tion which  is  painful  to  them  and  demoralizing  to  others.  In  many 
towns  their  keeping  for  one  year  is  hired  out  at  public  auction,  in 
town-meeting,  to  the  man  who  will  agree  to  keep  souls  and  bodies 
together  for  the  smallest  number  of  dollars  and  cents."  Selectmen 
had  even  made  it  matter  of  boast  that  they  had  **kept  town  paupers 
alive  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  upon  eight  cents  and  five  mills 
per  day.*' 

73 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

tal,  and  asylum.  Viewed  in  that  light,  it  cannot  be 
called  extravagance ;  but  the  character  of  the  care 
bestowed  admits  of  question. 

Turning  from  the  poor  and  the  insane  to  the 
schools,  the  record  is  not  much  better.  Upon  "  the 
little  red  school-house  "  period,  sometimes  so  greatly- 
lamented,  it  is  not  necessary  to  dilate.  In  the  case 
of  Lincoln,  it  is  pre-natal,  —  a  part  of  the  histories 
of  Concord  and  Lexington  and  Weston.  Referring 
to  the  conditions  then  prevailing,  and  the  educa- 
tional methods  in  vogue,  the  historian  of  Lincoln 
—  and  he  was  sufficiently  near  to  speak  thereof  with 
knowledge  —  exclaims  :  "  What  pen  shall  describe 
the  schools,  the  teaching,  the  poverty  of  the  appli- 
ances of  learning?  Lead  pencils,  steel  pens,  and 
ruled  paper  were  unknown.  The  exercises  consisted 
of  reading,  spelling,  the  study  of  arithmetic,  and 
learning  to  write.  These  exercises,  and  the  disci- 
pline of  the  school  —  which  was  usually  in  accord- 
ance with  the  maxim  of  Solomon  —  occupied  the 
sessions." 

But  this,  in  justice  be  it  distinctly  understood,  was 
in  the  earlier  and  provincial  period,  —  a  period  pre- 
historic, —  beyond  the  memory  of  the  oldest  living 
inhabitant.  With  the  installation  into  the  pastorate 
of  the  Rev.  Charles  Stearns,  Lincoln  seems  to  have 
entered  on  a  new  educational  hfe.  This  was  in  178 1, 
before  the  close  of  the  War  of  Independence;  and 
the  impetus  then  given  was  not  thereafter  suffered 
to  die  wholly  away.  Shattuck,  who  wrote  as  early  as 
1 835?  or  nine  years  only  after  Mr.  Stearns's  death, 

74 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

bears  his  testimony  that  Lincoln  had  always  given 
liberal  support  to  her  common  schools,  and  adds 
that  she  had  been  "rewarded  in  the  distinguished 
character  of  her  educated  sons ;  "  and  the  number 
of  those  among  them  who  were  graduates  of  Har- 
vard is,  in  the  case  of  a  town  which  never  up  to  the 
close  of  the  nineteenth  century  numbered  a  popu- 
lation of  twelve  hundred,  certainly  most  creditable.' 
Among  the  names  of  the  teachers  of  Lincoln's 
grammar  school  are  to  be  found  those  of  Timothy 
Farrar,  the  centenarian  jurist  of  New  Hampshire, 
born  here  in  1747;  of  Fisher  Ames,  the  orator- 
statesman,  born  in  Dedham  in  1758  ;  and  of  Jacob 
Bigelow,  the  eminent  physician  who  subsequently 
revolutionized  the  practice  of  medicine,  born  in  Sud- 
bury in  1787.  These  are  great  names  to  inscribe 
over  the  portal  of  one  rural  school-,  —  names  to  feel 
pride  in.  But,  according  to  Mr.  Porter,*  another 
bearer  of  a  great  name  bore  emphatic  testimony  to 
the  literary  atmosphere  which  prevailed  in  Lincoln, 
when,  in  the  early  forties,  Theodore  Parker  publicly 
informed  the  residents  of  Lexington  that  the  "  little 
town  on  the  hill  yonder  [Lincoln]  has  long  main- 

»  Mr.  Wheeler  gives  (Kurd's  Middlesex^  vol.  ii,  pp.  627-631)  a 
list  of  Lincoln  college  graduates  from  the  incorporation  of  the  town  to 
1886.  They  number  thirty-one  in  all,  of  whom  twenty  took  degrees 
at  Harvard,  four  at  Amherst,  three  at  Brown,  three  at  Dartmouth, 
and  one  at  Williams.  The  name  of  Farrar  occurs  most  frequently  in 
the  list,  ten  having  graduated  between  1755  and  1839.  The  Hartwells 
follow  with  four.  Samuel  Hoar  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1 802;  Professor 
John  Farrar  in  1803.  Both  were  prepared  for  college  at  Dr.  Stearns's 
Liberal  School. 

*  One  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anninjersary  of  First  Churchy  p.  94. 

75 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

tained  so  high  a  standard  that  Lexington  has  de- 
pended upon  her  for  many  of  its  teachers."  Lincoln 
never  rose  to  that  grade  in  population  which  imposed 
on  her  as  a  town  the  obligation  of  a  Latin  School, 
but,  in  1793,  Mr.  Stearns  and  others  instituted  here 
a  "  liberal  school,'*  as  it  was  denominated.  We  are 
told  that  the  old  laird  of  Auchinleck  contemptuously- 
said  of  the  famous  Dr.  Johnson  that  "  he  keppit  a 
schule  and  cau*d  it  an  Academy ; "  the  reverse  was 
the  case  with  Mr.  Stearns  and  his  associates,  for 
they  installed  an  academy,  and  modestly  called  it  a 
school.  But  what,  in  this  respect,  Mr.  Stearns  did 
has  already  been  gratefully  recorded,  and  I  shall  not 
repeat  what  others,  far  better  informed,  have  in  this 
respect  said.'  But  there  is  reason  to  claim  that, 
throughout  the  first  half  of  the  last  century,  —  and 
Mr.  Stearns,  be  it  remembered,  did  not  die  until 
1826,  —  the  schools  of  Lincoln  were  exceptionally 
good.  In  the  veracious  record  of  his  famous  voy- 
ages. Captain  Lemuel  Gulliver  tells  us  that  the  King 
of  Brobdingnag  "  gave  it  for  his  opinion,  that  who- 
ever could  make  two  ears  of  corn,  or  two  blades  of 
grass,  to  grow  upon  a  spot  of  ground  where  only 
one  grew  before,  would  deserve  better  of  mankind, 
and  do  more  essential  service  to  his  country,  than 
the  whole  race  of  politicians  put  together."  The 
sphere  of  duty  and  of  influence  of  Charles  Stearns 

*  See  Mr.  Bradley's  "Historical  Discourse''  (pp.  33,  34),  and 
Sermon  by  Rev.  E.  G.  Porter  (pp.  69,  70,  94),  in  Proceedings  on 
Ohsewance  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anni<versary -^  also  Mr. 
Wheeler's  "Lincoln  "  in  Kurd's  History  of  Middlesex  County  ^  vol.  ii, 
pp.  63a,  633. 

76 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

was  not  large,  but  within  that  sphere  what  Dr. 
Johnson  wrote  of  another  might  be  recorded  of 
him :  — 

"His  virtues  walkM  their  narrow  round. 
Nor  made  a  pause,  nor  left  a  void  : 
And  sure  the  eternal  Master  found 
His  single  talent  well  employed.*' 

The  second  pastor  of  the  Lincoln  church  did 
more  than  make  "  two  blades  of  grass  to  grow  upon 
a  spot  of  ground  where  only  one  grew  before ; " 
he  found  the  schools  of  the  community  to  which  he 
ministered  poor,  and  he  left  them  comparatively 
good.  What  greater  service  could  he  have  rendered 
his  people  ? 

But  before  dismissing  the  schools  of  that  earlier 
period,  I  cannot  refrain  from  quoting  the  following 
excellent  precepts,  laid  down  as  long  ago  as  1817  for 
the  guidance  of  Lincoln  teachers  and  pupils.  There 
is  about  them  a  quaintness  and  simplicity  in  these 
days  refreshing:  —  "  In  respect  to  the  internal  order 
of  Schools,  the  Committee  recommend  that  the  Mas- 
ters insist  on  Good  Order  and  enforce  it  by  such  pru- 
dent measures  as  shall  be  likely  to  produce  that  effect. 
That  they  strongly  recommend  to  the  scholars*  atten- 
tion cleanliness  of  person  and  decency  of  dress,  and 
that  the  scholars  make  it  known  to  their  parents 
and  Guardians  that  it  is  expected  of  them.  It  is 
highly  approved  by  the  Committee  that  the  Masters 
do  whatever  is  in  their  power  to  preserve  and  pro- 
mote good  morals  and  decent  and  polite  behaviour 
among  the  Students.    That  each  school  be  reduced 

17 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

to  as  few  classes  as  may  be  convenient,  and  that  in 
each  class  the  Students  take  their  rank  according  to 
Merit,  particularly  in  spelling." 

But,  when  all  is  said,  the  record  of  Lincoln  in  all 
these  respects,  though  quaint  and  graphic  and  instruc- 
tive in  its  way,  is  but  the  record  of  well-nigh  innu- 
merable other  towns  somewhat  similarly  placed.  The 
schools  were  simple  and  ungraded;  the  school-houses 
mean,  bare  and  remote;  the  teaching  in  them  was, 
perhaps,  unscientific;  but  the  annual  tuition  of  each 
scholar  cost  five  dollars,  whereas  now  it  costs  twenty- 
five.  The  roads  were  poor  and  unfit  for  heavy  team- 
ing; but  the  traffic  over  them  was  light,  and  the  cost 
of  their  maintenance  nominal.  All  this,  however,  is 
not  history;  no  more  history  than  the  daily  diary  of 
him  who  keeps  a  shop,  or  cultivates  a  farm.  From 
neither  the  last  nor  the  first  can  anything  new  or  of 
value  be  educed.  But  what  else  is  there  to  record  ? 
In  his  very  sympathetic,  as  well  as  scholarly  address, 
—  for  it  was  not,  as  there  denominated,  a  "Ser- 
mon," —  delivered  here  now  six  years  since,  my 
friend, —  now,  alas,  dead,  —  the  Rev.  Edward  G. 
Porter,  observed  that  "  Lincoln*s  part  in  the  French 
war,  in  the  Revolution,  and  in  our  subsequent  wars, 
remains  yet  to  be  fully  written."  I  do  not  think  so. 
The  story  has  been  told,  —  carefully  told,  and  by 
those  who  have  studieU  the  subject  in  each  detail,  — 
eloquently  told  from  every  point  of  view.  A  tablet 
by  the  wayside  on  the  old  Lexington-Concord  road 
commemorates  the  fact  that  it  was  in  Lincoln  Paul 
Revere's  ride  on  the  night  of  April  i8,  1775,  was 

78 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

brought  to  a  close;  and  a  more  modest  affidavit 
tells  us  that,  next  day,  Abijah  Pierce,  of  Lincoln, 
"  colonel  of  the  minute-men,"  went  up  to  Concord 
bridge  "armed  with  nothing  but  a  cane."  But  it 
is  when  one  goes  beyond  the  general  and  formal 
record  of  the  day  and  comes  in  contact  with  its  par- 
ticular incidents,  that  April,  1775,  lives  again,  and 
we  realize  not  only  what  real  men  and  women  had 
their  being  here,  but  we  feel  again  as  they  felt.  For 
instance,  in  April,  1850,  Concord  celebrated  the 
seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  its  famous  fight.  Two 
survivors  of  the  day  were  then  present,  Jonathan 
Harrington,  of  Lexington,  of  the  age  of  ninety-two, 
and  Amos  Baker,  of  Lincoln,  then  ninety-four.  Four 
years  later,  in  March,  1854, 1  remember  being  present 
at  the  funeral  of  Jonathan  Harrington,  the  last  sur- 
vivor of  Lexington  fight ;  for  Amos  Baker  had  died 
here  in  Lincoln  three  months  after  the  1850  anniver- 
sary at  Concord.  He  lies  just  opposite  us  now,  in  the 
family  tomb,  on  the  edge  of  the  old  burying-ground. 
But,  three  days  after  that  celebration  of  1850  they  re- 
corded his  recollection  of  what  had  occurred  seventy- 
five  years  before ;  '  and  it  is  instinct  with  life.  He 
told  how  his  "brother  Nathaniel  was  then  paying 
his  addresses  to  the  girl  whom  he  afterwards  mar- 
ried;" and,  on  the  evening  before  the  fight,  was  at  the 
house  on  the  Lexington  road  where  she  was  staying. 
They  must  have  been  late  callers  in  those  days,  for  he 
there  received  the  alarm  from  Dr.  Prescott,  who,  the 

I   "Oration  by  Robert  Rantoul,  Jr.,  and  Account  of  the  Union 
Celebration  at  Concord,  Nineteenth  April,  1850,"  pp.  133-135. 

79 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

inscription  on  the  tablet  tells  us,  did  not  escape  the 
British  outpost,  and  ride  that  way,  until  after  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  Coming  home,  and  alarm- 
ing his  family,  the  father  and  five  sons,  with  one  son- 
in-law,  —  six  Bakers  and  one  Hosmer,  —  that  morn- 
ing "joined  the  Lincoln  company  at  the  Brook,  by 
Flint's,  now  Sandy,  Pond,  near  the  house  of  Zachary 
Smith."  Amos  there  "  loaded  his  gun  with  two  balls, 
—  ounce  balls,  —  and  powder  accordingly."  He  saw 
the  British  troops  move  up  towards  Concord  com- 
mon, and  "  the  sun  shone  very  bright  on  their  bay- 
onets and  guns ; "  they  had  just  marched  through 
Lincoln.  According  to  his  own  recollection,  he  was 
the  only  man  from  Lincoln  who  had  a  bayonet.  His 
father  got  it  "  in  the  time  of  the  French  war."  But 
the  men  with  bayonets  were  put  in  the  front  when 
they  made  ready  to  march  down  to  the  bridge,  be- 
cause it  was  not  certain  whether  the  British  would 
fire,  or  whether  they  would  charge  bayonets  without 
firing.  "Then  they  saw  the  smoke  of  the  town  house, 
and  Major  Buttrick  said  — '  Will  you  stand  here,  and 
see  them  burn  the  town  down  ?  *  And  the  order  was 
given  to  march,  and  we  all  marched  down  without 
any  further  argument.  The  British  had  got  up  two 
of  the  planks  of  the  bridge.  There  were  two  soldiers 
killed  at  the  bridge.  I  saw  them  when  I  went  over 
the  bridge  lying,  side  by  side,  dead.  Colonel  Abijah 
Pierce  got  the  gun  of  one  of  them,  and  armed  him- 
self with  it.  Joshua  Brooks,  of  Lincoln,  was  at  the 
bridge,  and  was  struck  with  a  ball  that  cut  through 
his  hat,  and  drew  blood  on  his  forehead,  and  it  looked 

80 


The  Garfield  House 

Residence  of  Mr.  George  R.  Wheeler 

(p.  218) 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

as  if  it  was  cut  with  a  knife.  When  we  had  fired  at 
the  bridge,  and  killed  the  British,  Noah  Parkhurst, 
of  Lincoln,  who  was  my  right-hand  man,  said — 'Now, 
the  war  has  begun,  and  no  one  knows  when  it  will 
end/  "  So  Amos  Baker,  who  followed  the  pursuit 
back  to  Lexington  meeting-house,  closes  with  this 
reflection  on  his  feehngs  during  that  long,  fatiguing 
experience  :  —  "I  verily  believe  that  I  felt  better  that 
day,  take  it  all  the  day  through,  than  if  I  had  staid 
at  home."  This  is  history  ;  and,  racy  of  the  soil,  it  is 
characteristic  of  the  people  and  of  the  time.  Fighting 
before  their  own  lintels  and  over  their  own  hearth- 
stones, Jacob  Baker,  a  veteran  of  the  French  wars 
and  then  a  man  of  fifty-four,  accompanied  by  his 
five  sons  and  the  husband  of  his  daughter,  join  the 
mustering  minute-men  of  Lincoln  up  by  the  outlet 
of  Sandy  Pond ;  and,  armed  with  the  old  flint-lock 
King's-arms  and  fowling-pieces,  they  hurry  to  Con- 
cord common,  in  time  to  see  the  glistening  arms  of 
the  invading  troops  as  they  march  in  solid  ranks 
up  the  road  from  Lexington.  The  very  names  of 
the  father  and  his  sons,  biblical  all,  are  characteristic 
of  time  and  place,  —  Jacob,  the  father,  and  again  a 
Jacob ;  then  Samuel,  James,  Nathaniel  and  Amos, 
with  a  brother-in-law  Daniel ;  and  they  assembled  at 
the  house  of  Zachary,  later  occupied  by  Jonas ;  the 
Colonel  was  Abijah ;  and,  during  the  engagement, 
Amos's  right-hand  man  was  Noah,  while  Joshua  was 
struck  by  a  bullet. 

Again,  eighty-seven  years  later,  and  during  the 
Civil  War,  one  would  look  far  to  find  a  more  typical 

8i 


THE   TOWN    OF    LINCOLN 

or  creditable  individual  case  and  record  than  that  of 
George  Weston,  of  Lincoln  stock,  and  one  of  Lin- 
coln's quota.  A  Harvard  graduate,  his  story  has  been 
well,  and  perhaps  sufficiently,  told ;  for  he  was  of  a 
goodly  company.'  Two  years  only  a  graduate,  just 
entering  on  professional  life,  physically  unequal  to 
the  hardships  necessarily  incident  to  all  active  mili- 
tary service,  under  every  family  inducement  to  re- 
main at  home,  he  enlisted  from  an  overruling  sense 
of  obligation.  But  in  him,  as  in  so  many  others, 
pluck  supplying  the  lack  of  physical  stamina,  he 
proved  faithful  to  the  end. 

And  yet  there  was  another  side  to  the  record  both 
in  the  War  of  Independence  and  in  the  Civil  War. 
That  other  side,  too,  was  developed  in  the  case  of 
Weston,  and  emphasized  in  one  of  his  utterances,  by 
chance  handed  down  to  us.  His  entrance  into  the 
service  had  been  peculiarly  creditable  to  him.  For  a 
young  man  to  enlist,  or  rush  into  the  training  camp, 
during  the  summer  and  autumn  of  1861,  called  for 
no  courage,  bespoke  no  sense  of  sacrifice  or  duty  ; 
on  the  contrary,  the  restraint  lay  in  not  yielding  to 
the  universal  military  craze.  As  in  the  case  of  George 
Weston,  many  who  then  held  back  showed  in  so 
doing  a  suitable  regard  for  home  and  domestic  obli- 
gations. It  was  not  so  a  year  later.  The  glamour  was 
now  gone  ;  and,  after  the  terrible  fighting  before 
Richmond  ^nd  Washington  in  June,  July  and  Au- 
gust, 1862,  war  showed  itself  for  what  it  was, — 
something  very  grim.    The  tinsel  was  gone  ;  recruits 

»  Haward  Memorial  Biographies ^  vol.  ii,  pp.  199-206. 
82. 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

were  sorely  needed  ;  enlistments  had  stopped.'  Then 
it  was,  five  days  before  Antietam,  in  September, 
1862,  just  as  the  first  draft  was  about  to  be  ordered, 
that  Weston  stepped  to  the  front.  He  volunteered. 
He  did  so,  as  he  said  at  the  time,  because  others, 
his  friends  and  classmates,  had  gone  to  their  deaths 
"just  because  I,  and  such  as  I,  were  not  in  our 
places  to  help  them."  Not  from  impulse  did  he 
act,  but  goaded  to  the  sacrifice  by  that  terrible  New 
England  conscience. 

Such  was  an  individual  case ;  nor  did  it  stand 
alone.  But  there  was  another  side  to  that  great 
experience ;    a  seamy  side,  and  one  now  generally 

I  The  "  craze"'  had  passed  away  even  before  the  close  of  the  sum- 
mer of  1861.  "The  black  disaster  of  Bull  Run  still  overshadowed 
the  North.  The  five  regiments  in  camp  [in  Massachusetts]  lacked 
some  1700  men,  and  yet  the  daily  returns  from  the  recruiting  officers 
for  four  of  the  regiments  showed  a  total  enlistment  from  the  14th 
to  the  1 6th  of  August  of  only  four  men. "  (H.  G.  Pearson,  Life  of 
J.  A.  Andrenvy  vol.  i,  p.  244.)  A  year  later,  and  at  the  time  young 
Weston  volunteered,  the  situation  was  much  worse.  Even  in  early 
June,  1862,  the  militia  organizations  would  not  respond  to  an  emer- 
gency call.  Governor  Andrew  then  wrote  :  "  //  ivas  not  so  a  year  since. 
No  one  was  reluctant.  No  one  stipulated  for  short  terms.  Twenty 
regiments  eagerly  pressed  for  leave  to  go  for  any  term  however  indefi- 
nite. Now,  a  battery  Co.  whose  enlistment  began  a  week  yesterday 
has  not  85  men.  And  they  are  only  enlisting  for  Six  Months.  The 
war  looks  to  be  of  indefinite  length."  (/^.,  vol.  ii,  p.  23.)  As  the 
struggle  progressed  the  difficulties  in  procuring  voluntary  enlistments 
steadily  increased,  and  the  character  of  those  enlisting  deteriorated. 
Finally  the  filling  of  contingents  became  a  recognized  business,  and 
passed  into  the  hands  of  a  set  of  brokers  and  crimps,  of  whom  as  a 
class  it  is  said,  "The  sum  total  of  honesty  among  them  was  probably 
as  small  as  in  any  set  of  men  to  be  found  outside  prison.*'  {lb., 
p.  144.) 

83 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

passed  over  in  silence,  —  quietly  ignored,  in  fact. 
Yet  it  was  the  side  from  which  the  lesson  of  greater 
value  to  posterity  is  to  be  drawn.  The  mistakes 
—  stupid,  unscientific,  cruel,  costly  —  of  1778  and 
1862  should  not  be  repeated;  and  that  they  may 
not  be  repeated,  they  must  be  coldly  set  forth  and 
emphasized  strongly.  The  plain,  historic  fact  is  that, 
individual  instances  like  that  of  George  Weston 
apart,  after  the  first  outburst  of  excitement  which 
carried  the  whole  Baker  family  to  Concord  had  sub- 
sided, the  record  of  Lincoln,  as  of  Lincoln's  sister 
towns,  whether  in  the  War  of  Independence  '  or  in 
the  Civil  War,  is  in  my  judgment  not  one  to  dwell 
upon  with  feelings  of  complacency.  As  a  whole, 
and  when  studied  in  the  hard,  matter-of-fact  entries 
of  your  town-books,  it  is  far  from  being  a  record 

»  The  record  of  Lincoln  in  the  War  of  Independence  was  worked 
up  with  great  labor  and  assiduity  by  Mr.  Wheeler,  and  a  list  of  the 
town's  revolutionary  soldiers  is  to  be  found  in  Hurd's  Middlesex  (vol. 
ii,  pp.  620-624).  The  list  is,  however,  admittedly  imperfect  and 
incomplete.  The  only  deduction  to  be  drawn  from  it  is  that  the  war 
was  carried  on  in  a  most  ineffective  and  extravagant  way  as  respects 
both  men  and  money.  Enlistments  were  voluntary  ;  terms  of  service 
varied  j  extravagant  bounties  were  paid.  But  it  is  also  apparent  that,  in 
proportion  to  population  and  wealth,  the  War  of  Independence  weighed 
far  more  heavily  than  the  Civil  War  on  the  resources  of  the  commu- 
nity. It  lasted  twice  as  long  ;  there  was  no  large  floating  and  foreign 
population  to  draw  on  for  recruits  ;  the  means  of  transportation  were 
limited  ;  the  material  at  command  was  small.  Mr.  Wheeler  says  that 
in  1781  the  town,  with  a  population  of  750,  paid  £'j'^  10  s.  "hard 
money,"  or  $255,  to  each  of  twelve  men  enlisting  for  three  years  in 
the  Continental  service.  This  represented  for  that  single  year  one 
man  in  twelve  of  the  entire  arms-bearing  population  of  the  town;  and 
$255  in  specie  then  would  have  been  the  equivalent  of  at  least  ^1500 
in  currency  during  the  Civil  War. 

84 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

either   of  eager  patriotism    or  of  unthinking  self- 
sacrifice. 

But  here  bear  with  me  for  a  moment  while  I 
indulge  in  a  brief  disquisition  ;  as,  perchance,  what 
I  have  just  said  may  grate  harshly  on  the  ears  of 
some,  offending  their  most  cherished  preconceptions. 
Briefly,  between  1861  and  1865  I  served  myself 
through  years  of  actual  warfare,  and,  since,  I  have 
searched  somewhat  deeply  into  our  records  of  that 
period.  My  study  has  emphasized  my  recollection  ; 
so,  on  this  subject,  I  feel.  I  have  come  to  think 
that  neither  in  our  War  of  Independence  nor  in  our 
Civil  War  did  Massachusetts,  or  our  Massachusetts 
towns,  evince  a  military  instinct,  or  rise  to  an  equality 
with  the  occasion.  In  other  words,  I  hold  that  no 
community  has  any  right  to  go  to  war  unless  it  is 
prepared  to  make  war  in  a  way  at  once  scientific, 
business-like,  and  effective.  To  pursue  any  differ- 
ent course  is  to  the  last  degree  wasteful,  dangerous, 
bloody,  foolish.  Yet  this  is  what  Massachusetts,  and 
the  Massachusetts  towns,  did  in  both  their  great  re- 
cent war  ordeals.  The  course  pursued  was  as  little 
creditable  to  their  intelligence,  as  to  their  sense  of 
thrift  in  money,  or  of  the  sanctitude  of  blood.  In 
each  case  there  was  at  first  a  great  outburst  of  zeal 
and  patriotism,  —  a  rush  to  arms.  Then  followed 
coolness  and  huckstering.  With  the  memory  of  the 
first  outburst,  —  Lexington,  in  the  one  case,  Sumter, 
in  the  other,  —  occasions  like  this  are  resonant ;  that 
only  is  dwelt  upon.  What  ensued  is  ignored ;  but 
your  record-books  tell  the  story.    The  only  strenu- 

85 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

ous  effort  was  the  effort  to  escape  military  service ; 
food  for  powder  was  purchased  in  open  market,  and 
at  a  price  advancing  by  leaps  and  bounds.  The  fact 
is  that  neither  in  1778  nor  in  1862  did  the  young 
men  rush  to  the  colors ;  nor  would  the  community 
order  and  submit  to  a  draft.  Patriotism  was  sold  and 
bought.  Flesh-and-blood  was  so  much  a  pound,  — 
twelve  dollars,  being,  if  I  remember  right,  the  top  quo- 
tation. We  carried,  it  is  true,  both  struggles  through 
to  triumphant  conclusions ;  but  was  this  method  of 
doing  it  creditable,  or  economical,  or  humane  ?  Was 
it  a  thing  to  be  proud  of  or  to  dilate  on?  I  hold  it 
was  not.  If  others  here  think  it  was,  I  commend  to 
their  consideration  the  pages  of  the  Lincoln  town- 
books.  It  would,  in  1780  and  in  1863,  have  been 
immensely  creditable  to  Lincoln  did  it  therein  appear 
that,  in  view  of  the  war,  the  men  were  divided  and 
enrolled  by  ages,  —  the  married  and  the  unmarried, 
brothers  and  sole  supports  of  mothers,  —  and  the 
draft  had  then  been  rigidly  and  swiftly  enforced.  If  a 
community  elects  war,  its  young  men  should  be  made 
to  go  to  war.  So  doing  should  not  be  a  matter  of 
choice  or  of  bargaining.  Had  this  severe,  scientific 
and  logical  course  been  adopted,  and  ruthlessly  pur- 
sued either  in  1776  orin  i86i,I  risk  nothing  in  assert- 
ing that  both  the  War  of  Independence  and  the  Civil 
War  would  have  cost  in  time,  in  treasure,  in  anguish 
and  in  blood,  but  a  tithe  of  what  they  did  cost.  As 
it  was,  you  sent  forward  the  bounty-bought  refuse  of 
the  city  slums  and  county  jails  to  associate  with  your 
George  Westons  if  they  survived,  or  to  take  their 

86 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

places  when  they  fell ;  while,  by  the  system  of  re- 
plenishment in  vogue,  you  compelled  those  at  the 
front  to  undergo  eight  campaigns  instead  of  four,  and 
to  fight  two  indecisive  battles  where  one  vigorously 
followed  up  should  have  sufficed.  Were  it  germane 
to  the  history  of  Lincoln,  I  could  myself  tell  you  of 
bitter  experiences  with  those  latter-day  substitutes  for 
soldiers. 

One  fact,  however,  should  ever  be  borne  in  mind, 

—  a  fact  already  referred  to,  and  which  I  now  would 
emphasize.  Once  only  during  the  last  two  centuries 
has  an  armed  enemy  crossed  Lincoln's  borders.  The 
struggles  in  which,  since  her  incorporation,  she  has 
been  called  upon  to  contribute,  whether  in  money  or 
in  blood,  have  been  remote ;  nor,  as  such  things  go, 
were  her  sacrifices  in  them  really  considerable.  Dur- 
ing the  whole  four  years  of  our  great  civil  conflict, 
for  instance,  Lincoln's  entire  quota  amounted  to  not 
more  than  one  in  ten  of  her  population,  and  of  that 
actual  population,  —  from  among  her  own  denizens, 

—  it  is  open  to  question  whether  even  one  in  twenty 
was  sent  by  her  to  the  front.  Of  her  assessed  valua- 
tion, the  conflict  of  which  so  much  is  said  cost  her 
less  than  two  dollars  in  a  hundred.  She  did  not  see 
her  hearths  devastated,  nor  was  death's  bitter  cup 
pressed  home  to  her  own  lips ;  she  never  felt  the 
cruel  stress  and  wicked  waste  of  instant,  grim-visaged 
war.  Had  that  lot  indeed  been  hers,  it  does  not  for 
a  moment  admit  of  doubt,  the  spirit  of  April,  1775, 
would  have  again  flamed  forth ;  and,  while  as  then, 
every  arms-bearing  man  would  have  been  found  in 

87 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

the  ranks,  her  substance  would  have  been  poured 
out  like  water  spilt  upon  the  plain. 

On  this  topic  enough  has  in  my  judgment  been 
said.  In  other  respects,  the  roster  —  and  it  is  a  cred- 
itable one  —  of  the  town's  conspicuous  sons  has  been 
compiled  by  one  conscientious  investigator,'  and 
eloquent  mention  made  of  certain  of  the  more  emi- 
nent among  them  by  another,  now  recognized  as 
past  master  of  this  description  of  tribute.''  Later,  the 
general  principles  involved  in  our  two  great  crises 
of  national  development  were  adequately  outlined 
and  emphasized  by  an  orator  very  competent  for  the 
task,  when,  on  the  26th  of  May,  1892,  you  dedicated 
your  town-hall.^  Nothing  on  these  topics  has  been 
left  for  this  occasion. 

It  is  otherwise  as  respects  your  system  of  water 
supply.  That  undertaking,  and  its  slow  develop- 
ment, were  not  only  events  in  Lincoln's  story,  but 
their  treatment  by  one  competent  for  the  task,  who, 
having  been  present  at  the  town-meetings,  was  per- 
sonally familiar  with  the  men  concerned  and  had 
watched  the  course  of  events,  —  their  treatment  by 
such  a  person  might,  I  say,  be  made  a  study  as  full  of 
life  and  humor  and  character  as  Mrs.  GaskelFs  "Cran- 
ford."  The  development  was  initiated  in  1872,  and 
for  thirty  years  thereafter  it  not  only  supplied  a  por- 
tion of  the  community  with  water,  but  the  whole  of 

'  The  Lincoln  Church  Manual y  by  Rev.  H.  J.  Richardson,  1872. 
»  Senator  George  F.  Hoar,  Proceedings  at  the  Dedication  of  the  Lin- 
coln Library y  August  5,  1864. 

3  William  Everett,  LL.D.,  of  Quincy. 

88 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

it  with  an  ever-present  bone  of  unfailing  contention. 
Indeed,  echoes  of  that  contention  have  not  yet  wholly 
died  away,  —  their  rumble  is  at  times  distinctly 
heard.  Nor  is  that  surprising ;  for  I  doubt  if  state 
or  nation  afford  another  instance  of  a  like  burden 
assumed  by  a  purely  rural  community  numbering  but 
eight  hundred  souls,  and  those  scattered  over  some 
seventeen  square  miles  of  territory,  with  no  thickly 
peopled  centres.  The  act  was  one  of  genuine  states- 
manship; as  such  it  implied  in  those  who  promoted 
it  not  only  courage  and  foresight,  but  an  absolute 
confidence  in  destiny.  That  in  reality  it  was  a  move 
of  self-protection,  if  not  of  self-preservation,  is  now 
apparent.  But,  in  1872,  this  was  far  from  apparent; 
and  Lincoln's  birthright  was  then  threatened.  An 
offshoot  of  Concord  in  part,  Lincoln  was  in  immi- 
nent danger  of  having  Concord  preempt  Sandy  Pond ; 
and,  with  it,  a  priority  in  right  over  Lincoln's  great 
reservoir  of  one  of  God's  most  precious  gifts  to  man. 
Of  the  two  whose  prescience,  shrewdness  and 
assiduity  then  saved  for  Lincoln  its  patrimony,  — 
prevented  the  sacrifice  thereof  without  even  the  pro- 
verbial mess-of-pottage  return  therefor,  —  both  were 
within  ten  years  still  active  in  the  town's  affairs. 
To  see  them,  and  cooperate  with  them,  was  my  privi- 
lege. One,  the  traditional  town-clerk,  has  now  gone 
before ; '  the  other  yet  remains,  wholly  withdrawn 
from  active  participation  in  those  proceedings  over 

'  James  Lorin  Chapin,  died  March  i ,  190a.  Bom,  1823.  Settled 
in  Lincoln  in  1 845.  Chairman  of  the  Board  of  Selectmen  and  Town 
Treasurer,  1868  to  1876.     Town  Clerk,  1878  to  1902. 

89 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

which  through  so  many  years  he  exercised  an  influ- 
ence no  less  beneficial  than  potent.  They  were  men 
of  a  type  of  which  this  age  produces  few,  —  a  type, 
let  me  add,  peculiar  to  New  England  and  its  town 
governments.  Shrewd,  humorous,  crabbed  perhaps 
at  times  and  in  a  way,  they  were  public-spirited,  as 
careful  of  the  interests  of  the  town  as  of  their  own, 
—  the  county  politicians  and  the  village  statesmen. 
Individual  in  type,  the  outcome  of  New  England 
conditions,  of  an  antique  mould,  the  last  of  the  race, 
lingering  among  us  from  the  stage-coach  period,  are 
now  fast  disappearing.  They  will  soon  be  extinct, 
and  the  world  so  much  the  poorer ;  for,  to  men  of 
that  peculiar  stamp,  the  railroad  was  as  fatal  as  was 
civilization  to  those  denizens  of  the  forest,  their  long- 
time predecessors.  As  for  us  who  have  succeeded 
them,  — 

"  ground  in  yonder  social  mill. 
We  rub  each  other's  angles  down. 
And  merge  in  [one  same]  form  and  gloss. 
The  picturesque  of  man  and  man.'* 

I  have  referred  to  the  dedication  of  your  Town- 
Hall  in  1892,  and  Dr.  Everett*s  inspiring  address  on 
that  occasion.  But  there  is  another  utterance  in  the 
report  of  what  occurred  that  day  which  to  my  mind 
strikes  a  note  of  deeper  significance.  One  to  the  man- 
ner born,  —  oppressed,  it  would  appear,  by  a  certain 
sense  of  solemnity  very  proper  to  the  day,  —  being 
called  upon,  thus  then  expressed  himself:  *'This  town 
has,  in  a  manner,  reached  a  turning  of  the  ways. 
Changes  have  taken  place  within  it  during  the  past 

90 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

few  years  greater  than  for  a  long  period  in  its  previous 
history.  A  new  Library,  the  removal  of  the  old 
Church  and  Town-Hall,  and  the  erection  of  new  and 
more  elegant  buildings  in  the  place  of  each,  have  much 
altered  the  appearance  of  the  middle  of  the  town 
as  I  have  always  known  it.  Many  a  venerable  form 
familiar  to  this  spot  has  gone  down,  and  out  of  sight. 
As  I  view  these  buildings,  as  I  look  over  this  audi- 
ence, consisting  as  it  does  largely  of  Lincoln  people, 
I  see  not  the  Lincoln  of  my  boyhood ;  instead,  the 
old  buildings  gone,  almost  all  of  the  old  faces  gone, 
and  their  loved  and  honored  names  one  by  one  let- 
tered on  slabs  of  stone  down  in  the  valley  and  on  the. 
hillside.  Instead  of  the  old  buildings  and  the  old 
faces,  modern  structures  and  an  unfamiliar  street." 
Coming  from  the  source  it  did,  there  was  in  this 
something  suggestive,  not  to  say  pathetic.  Born  in 
Lincoln  of  the  old  Lincoln  stock,  he  who  uttered 
those  words  had  passed  here  his  boyhood,  had  gone 
to  the  school,  had  watched  the  town-meeting  and 
hearkened  to  the  village  debates,  had  sat  under  the 
ministrations  of  the  Richardson  pastorate.  Having 
made  his  home  elsewhere,  he  had  come  back  to  Lin- 
coln to  take  part  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  occasion. 
A  distant  echo  of  Rip  Van  Winkle  pervaded  what 
he  said,  —  a  suggestion  of  bewilderment,  an  under- 
tone of  reminiscence  and  sadness.  It  was,  moreover, 
as  he  said.  The  change  he  referred  to  had  indeed 
taken  place  ;  it  was  deep-reaching  and  wide  :  more- 
over, in  outward  expression  at  least,  it  was  sudden 
and   recent ;  —  the   modern   church    edifice,  —  no 

91 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

longer  a  meeting-house,  —  the  town-hall,  and  the 
new  library  building,  all  grouped  together  on  the 
familiar  cross-roads,  emphasized  the  existence  of 
another  and  different  community.  Old  Lincoln  had 
passed  forever  away ! 

The  fact  was  there.  Yet  I  have  sought  in  vain  for 
any  mention  of  that  change,  or  reference  to  its  cause, 
in  the  historical  sketches  of  the  town,  —  whether 
that  contributed  by  Mr.  Wheeler,  or  in  the  occasional 
utterances  of  Senator  Hoar,  or  of  Dr.  Everett,  or 
in  the  Manual  prepared  by  Mr.  Richardson,  or  in 
the  discourses  of  Mr.  Bradley  and  Mr.  Porter.  The 
change,  and  the  cause  of  it,  however,  when  once 
considered,  both  are  and  were  obvious  enough, — 
apparent  indeed  to  all  men ;  so  apparent,  so  very 
obvious  and  commonplace,  and  so  gradual,  that,  per- 
haps, they  were  not  thought  worthy  of  notice. 

The  Fitchburg  railroad,  as  it  was  called,  —  the 
outcome  of  the  energy  of  Colonel  Alvah  Crocker, 
that  typical  New  Englander,  active  in  body  and 
in  mind,  untiring  in  movement,  and  voluble  in 
speech,  "  A  Steam-Engine  in  Breeches,"  as  he  was 
sometimes  not  over  respectfully  denominated,  —  the 
Fitchburg  railroad  was  formally  opened  for  traffic  to 
Waltham,  December  20,  1843.  Fourteen  months 
later,  March  5,  1845,  —  ^^^  ^^7  ^^^^^  ^^^  inaugura- 
tion at  Washington  of  President  James  K.  Polk,  — 
the  first  locomotive,  with  Alvah  Crocker  on  it,  ran 
into  Fitchburg.  On  the  17th  of  the  previous  June 
—  Bunker  Hill  day  —  the  road  as  far  as  Concord 
had  been  put  in  operation  ;  and   Lincoln,  conse- 

92 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

quently,  since  that  day,  had  been  in  railroad  com- 
munication with  Boston.  The  17th  of  June,  1844, 
marks  the  single  great  epoch  in  the  modern  history 
of  the  town.  The  great  change  then  began,  —  a 
change  slow  in  movement,  and  for  years  not  out- 
wardly perceptible ;  but,  so  far  as  Lincoln  was  con- 
cerned, far  reaching  and  all  involving;  a  change  re- 
plete with  interest  for  the  philosopher,  the  historian 
and  the  economist.  This,  indeed,  and  the  building 
of  the  original  meeting-house,  are  the  only  two  really 
parti ng-of-t he- way  events  in  the  Lincoln  record. 

Much,  first  and  last,  has  been  written  and  said 
of  King  Philip's  War,  of  Queen  Anne's  War,  and  of 
the  old  French  War ;  of  the  fall  of  Quebec,  of  the 
War  of  Independence,  and  of  the  incidents  of  the  1 9th 
of  April  along  the  old  Lexington  and  Concord 
road.  The  War  of  Secession,  and  Lincoln's  contri- 
butions to  it  in  men  and  in  money,  have  also  not 
been  forgotten.  And  yet,  if  only  reflected  on,  it  will 
be  seen  that  not  one  of  those  really  great  historical 
landmarks  even  perceptibly  affected  the  conditions 
of  this  place,  or  the  mode  of  life  of  its  people. 
These  were  exactly  the  same  after  those  epochal 
events,  one  and  all,  as  before.  Take,  for  instance, 
the  War  of  Independence,  or,  for  that  matter,  the 
War  of  Secession,  —  the  ride  of  Paul  Revere,  or  the 
firing  on  Sumter ;  —  great  events,  dramatic,  and  of 
far-reaching  political  moment,  —  but  how  did  they 
affect  Lincoln  ?  After  them,  as  before,  the  people 
here  year  by  year,  season  in  and  season  out,  pursued 
the  even  tenor  of  their  ways,  —  a  path  monotonous 

93 


THE   TOWN    OF    LINCOLN 

from  cradle  to  grave.  I  have  herein  sought  to  pic- 
ture it  as  it  dragged  along  through  school  and  field, 
forest  and  kitchen,  —  the  plow,  the  axe,  the  wash- 
tub  and  the  oven ;  —  the  Sabbath  ever  the  only 
break  in  life,  the  meeting-house  its  single  centre. 
Those  people  were  born,  married,  brought  forth, 
and  died ;  and  one  generation  resembled  another. 
Their  entire  biographies  may  be  read  on  their 
gravestones.  How  did  Quebec,  or  Bunker  Hill,  or 
Gettysburg,  affect  them  ?  The  generation  which 
followed  the  War  of  Independence  differed  in  no 
respect  from  that  which  took  part  in  Queen  Anne's 
War,  or  that  which  bore  the  brunt  of  Philip's  Indian 
fighting.  With  them  there  was,  it  is  true,  a  gradual 
increase  in  worldly  possessions ;  a  bettering  of  ma- 
terial conditions :  but  it  was  so  very  gradual  as  to 
be  from  year  to  year  imperceptible  ;  between  gen- 
erations, scarcely  noticeable.  The  schools  may  have 
improved,  though,  before  the  Stearns  pastorate,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  point  out  exactly  in  what  re- 
spect. There  was  an  increase  in  the  number  of 
thoroughfares,  as  in  the  volume  of  traffic  upon  them  : 
but  in  essentials  those  thoroughfares  were  the  same, 
and,  prior  to  1870,  it  may  safely  be  said  that,  judged 
by  the  standard  this  generation  has  attained  unto, 
the  people  of  Lincoln  did  not  know  what  a  good 
road  was.  The  highway  tax  was  a  levy  paid  in  kind. 
Yearly,  on  town-meeting  day,  prices  were  fixed  for 
labor,  or  the  use  of  teams ; '  and,  at  the  rates  thus 

*  **  Voted  and  granted  the  sum  of  sixty  pounds  to  be  laid  out  as 
usual  in  the  repairs  of  highways  and  bridges  in  current  year  j   and 

94 


The  Nelson  House 
(p.  219) 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

established,  those  liable  discharged  their  dues.  Tra- 
ditions yet  survive  of  the  way  in  which  the  Rev. 
Charles  Stearns,  D.  D.,  —  that,  in  person,  Falstaffian 
divine,  —  with  hoe  and  shovel,  and  by  the  sweat  of 
his  brow,  worked  out  his  tax  in  company  with  those 
composing  his  flock.  He  too,  it  is  profanely  said, 
then  larded  the  lean  earth  as  he  walked  along. 

The  roads  corresponded  with  the  methods  in  use 
for  their  maintenance.  Deep  in  mud  in  the  spring, 
deep  in  dust  in  the  summer,  the  so-called  public 
ways  were  deep  in  snow  in  winter.  In  the  autumn 
only  were  they  passable.  All  this  the  War  of  In- 
dependence did  not  better,  —  did  not  in  any  way 
change.  Schools  and  roads  and  church  observances, 
—  the  food,  the  dress,  the  (iomestic  life,  or  the 
means  of  livelihood  of  that  people,  —  continued  to 
be  as  immemorially  they  had  been.  And  so  the 
faint  echoes  of  distant  battles  died  gently  away  with- 
out introducing  into  Lincoln  a  book  or  a  paper, 
much  less  an  industry  or  a  new  means  of  livelihood, 
or  a  breath  of  stronger  and  more  varied  life,  or  any 
increase  of  intercourse  with  the  outer  world.  Not 
until  1825  did  the  town  even  boast  a  post-oflice ;  * 
and  the  early  history  of  that  office  throws  a  queer 
gleam  of  light  on  Lincoln  at,  so  to  speak,  the  half- 
three  shillings  per  day  to  be  allowed  to  each  man  that  doth  a  sufficient 
day's  work,  and  the  same  sum  for  a  sufficient  team  till  the  loth  of 
September  —  and  but  is  6d  per  day  from  the  said  loth  of  September 
to  the  end  of  the  year."    Records,  March  2,  1795. 

*  The  South  Lincoln  post-office  was  not  established  until  1872, 
seven  years  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War.  That  struggle  does  not 
seem  to  have  influenced  Lincoln  in  any  way. 

95 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

way  house  between  its  starting-point  and  the  point 
now  reached.  The  railroad  was  only  twenty  years  in 
the  future,  yet  the  place  had  not  got  going.  The 
office  was  established,  and  one  David  S.  Jones  made 
postmaster,  January  24,  1825.  Its  total  receipts  for 
the  first  five  months  of  its  existence  were  ^14.35. 
Postmaster  Jones  then  seems  to  have  become  wearied 
and  discouraged,  or  delinquent,  for  no  returns  appear 
during  the  year  ensuing.  At  last,  in  July,  1827,  the 
office  showed  signs  of  renewed  life.  Luke  Gates 
assumed  charge  of  it ;  and,  during  the  ensuing  full 
fiscal  year,  its  receipts  amounted  to  no  less  a  sum 
than  ^47.62,  an  average  of  $3.97  a  month.  Even 
after  the  railroad  was  opened,  the  single  daily  mail 
was  for  years  carried  over  the  road  to  and  from  the 
station  by  a  man  on  foot,  —  nor  was  he  thereby 
over-burdened  !  Such  was  Lincoln  seventy-five  years 
after  its  incorporation,  and  when  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  had  been  celebrated  for  a  half  century. 
That  instrument,  and  the  stirring  events  which 
marked  its  proclamation,  had  not  produced  any  dis- 
cernible effisct  on  the  Massachusetts  hill  community. 
But  at  last  the  railroad ;  that  changed  all !  And 
now  Lincoln's  history  once  more  becomes  interest- 
ing,—  an  economical  study,  indeed,  of  small,  per- 
haps, but  profound,  significance  ;  for  it  illustrates  to 
a  remarkable  degree  the  truth  of  the  teachings  of 
Adam  Smith,  —  his  faith  in  the  benefits  sure  to  fol- 
low the  removal  of  every  restriction  on  trade.  Events, 
however,  even  in  these  latter  days,  — those  succeed- 
ing the  Declaration,  —  move  slowly.    Smith's  book 

96 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

first  saw  the  light  in  1776,  —  sixty-eight  years  before 
the  railroad  from  Boston  to  Fitchburg  was  opened 
through  Lincoln.  If,  when  that  road  was  opened, 
the  veil  could  have  been  lifted,  and  the  economical 
significance  of  the  event  revealed,  it  would  have 
called  for  a  very  robust  faith  in  the  fundamental 
truth  of  the  Scotch  professor's  new-fangled  theories 
to  have  foreseen  for  Lincoln  anything  but  a  future 
of  ruin  and  desolation,  —  abandoned  farms  and 
rotting  roof-trees.  What  did  the  railroad  signify  ? 
—  not  perhaps  at  once,  but  in  the  slow  progress  and 
final  result  of  an  inevitable  development,  —  a  devel- 
opment those  who  looked  on  at  the  opening  were  to 
live  to  witness  and  to  study  ;  for  the  man  now  of  three- 
score and  ten  was  already  then  in  his  eleventh  year. 
That  opening  meant  for  Lincoln  the  complete  cast- 
ing down  of  her  trade  barriers.  Those  dwelling  in 
Lincoln  were  thereafter  to  be  subjected,  as  respects 
every  source  of  livelihood,  to  an  unrestrained  com- 
petition from  each  quarter  of  the  compass  —  the 
boundless  and  fertile  West,  the  frost-covered  North, 
the  genial  South,  and  even  from  the  barren  sea. 
And  there  was  not  one  single  article  which  Lin- 
coln then  produced  which  could  not  be  produced 
elsewhere  under  more  favorable  conditions.  Those 
articles  —  staples  of  life  —  were  henceforth  to  be 
transported  by  rail  and  "  dumped,"  to  use  the  word 
now  in  vogue,  not  only  on  the  markets  open  to  Lin- 
coln, but  on  Lincoln  itself  Take,  for  instance, 
Lincoln's  traditional  products,  —  those  enumerated 
in  the  Lawrence  settlement  of  1748,  —  cord-wood, 

97 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

Indian  corn,  rye,  pork  and  beef.  How  could  Lin- 
coln, hauling  its  wood  over  country  roads,  hope  to 
compete  in  Boston  market  with  wood  brought  by 
the  train-load  from  New  Hampshire  and  Maine  ? 
How  much  less  could  it  compete  with  coal  from 
Pennsylvania  ?  Every  child  here  knows  that  to-day 
coal  has  driven  wood  as  fuel  out  of  every  house  in 
Lincoln.  A  wood  fire  is  a  luxury.  And  Indian  corn, 
and  rye  ?  How  could  Lincoln,  on  its  rugged  hill- 
sides and  with  its  thin  upland  soil,  compete  with  the 
rich  virgin  plains  of  Illinois,  where  cereals  of  fabu- 
lous size  and  productiveness  grew  of  themselves,  — 
where  fertilizers  were  wasted  ?  And  so  with  cattle 
and  swine.  In  the  States  west  of  the  Lakes,  they 
were  raised  in  herds  and  droves,  living  on  the  plenty 
of  the  land  ;  here  they  must  be  nurtured,  singly  and 
toilfully,  sheltered  and  fed,  and  ceaselessly  cared  for. 
Nor  was  it  any  better  with  the  choicer  fruits  of 
the  earth,  —  the  apple,  the  peach,  the  cherry  and  the 
strawberry.  If  the  valley  of  the  Mohawk,  the  up- 
lands of  Ohio,  and  the  plains  of  Indiana  and  Illi- 
nois made  wheat  instead  of  meal  the  staff  of  life,  so 
New  Jersey  and  Delaware  rushed  into  the  produc- 
tion of  peaches  and  berries  under  conditions  which 
made  Lincoln's  competition  seemingly  hopeless, 
flooding  every  accessible  market.  At  the  same  time 
apples,  potatoes  and  carrots,  produced  in  the  great 
belt  reaching  from  Maine  to  Michigan,  poured  in  by 
the  train-load.  It  was,  too,  a  case  of  absolute  free- 
trade.  There  was  no  tariff  barrier  anywhere.  The 
cost  of  transportation  alone  had  to  be  taken  into 

98 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

account;  —  the  farm  wagon  from  Lincoln  ran  over 
the  highway  against  the  freight  train  from  the  Hud- 
son over  the  railroad.    Lincoln  had  no  protection  ! 

Fortunately,  the  situation  was  not  realized,  and  the 
change  came  gradually.  As  it  developed,  the  unex- 
pected occurred,  —  it  usually  does  occur !  In  other 
words,  the  abandoned  farms,  the  vacant  homesteads, 
the  falling  roof-trees,  did  not  materialize.  On  the 
contrary,  and  in  due  time,  there  resulted,  as  I  have 
said,  a  most  interesting  illustration  of  the  truth  of 
Smith's  teachings.  An  alert,  enterprising  and  ener- 
getic community  proved  equal  to  the  emergency ; 
and  Lincoln,  quietly,  insensibly  almost,  adjusting  it- 
self to  the  gradual  change  of  conditions,  instead  of 
lapsing  into  everlasting  ruin,  grew  yearly  more  pros- 
perous, more  populous,  more  intelligent  and  more 
moral.  Were  statistics  attainable,  and  did  time  and 
space  permit,  it  would  be  curious  to  follow  this  change 
through  its  intricate  channels.  Unlike  many  other 
towns,  Lincoln  could  not  diversify  its  occupations. 
Nature  debarred  it  from  so  doing.  It  was  a  farming 
town,  and,  moreover,  a  hill  town ;  as  such  it  had 
no  source  of  power,  nor  any  natural  advantage.  It 
could  not,  like  Lowell,  become  a  mill-centre ;  nor  ^ 
boot  and  shoe  factory,  like  Brockton ;  it  could  not 
go  into  the  manufacture  of  whips,  like  Topsfield,  nor 
even  of  base-balls,  like  Natick.  From  the  conditions 
of  its  origin.  It  was,  and  had  to  remain,  exclusively 
agricultural.  As  such,  apparently.  It  was  doomed. 
How  did  it  escape  Its  doom  ?  —  for,  unquestionably, 
the  doom  was  escaped.   It  escaped  simply  by  force  of 

99 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

intelligence,  and  because  it  had  to.  In  the  first  place, 
under  the  so-called  "  dumping  "  process,  its  markets 
developed  an  unexpected  sustaining  power.  They 
even  seemed  to  like  it,  and  thrive  under  it.  Contrary 
to  all  prognostications  of  evil  and  ruin,  a  plentiful 
supply  of  all  the  goods  of  the  earth,  at  prices  ruin- 
ously low  for  the  home  producers  thereof,  had  a  most 
stimulating  effect,  and  centres  of  industry  —  each  a 
new  market  in  itself —  began  to  develop  with  ever 
increasing  rapidity.  With  wealth  and  population 
arose  new  and  undreamed-of  demands ;  the  luxury 
of  yesterday  became  the  necessity  of  to-day.  Take 
a  few  homely  examples,  articles  known  as  garden- 
truck,  —  asparagus,  lettuce  and  cucumbers ;  before 
the  railroad,  these  were  raised  in  Lincoln  only  for 
home  use,  and  the  two  latter  had,  as  the  first  has  still, 
their  season.  In  that  season  they  were  cheap  and 
plentiful ;  out  of  that  season,  money  could  not  buy 
them.  How  is  it  now?  Lincoln  has  simply  gone 
into  their  manufacture,  regardless  of  season  ;  they  are 
made  artificially,  under  glass.  Plentiful  throughout 
the  year,  the  demand  for  them  is  incessant ;  and  they 
cost  hardly  more  in  December  than  in  June.  The 
asparagus  and  strawberry  beds  have  displaced  the  field 
of  Indian  corn,  just  as  wheaten  bread  has  driven  out 
the  loaf  of  meal  and  rye.  And  so  to-day,  by  a  nat- 
ural process,  Lincoln,  without  protection,  with  no  ex- 
ternal aid  or  tariff  barrier,  has  quietly  adjusted  itself 
to  changed  conditions ;  and,  even  as  an  agricultural 
town  in  a  community  of  absolutely  unrestricted  free- 
trade  in  all  agricultural  products,  is  more  prosperous 

100 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

than  ever  before.  Even  wood,  —  cord-wood,  — 
the  traditional  product  of  the  axe  and  wood  lot, 
—  the  competition  of  Maine  and  New  Hampshire 
beyond  the  State,  and  of  Berkshire  and  Franklin 
within,  has  not  destroyed  its  value  ;  nor  has  coal  dis- 
placed it  as  fuel.  Though  the  range  and  the  stove 
have  supplanted  the  open  fireplace,  the  product  of  the 
forest  still  reigns  supreme  as  the  fuel  of  wealth  ;  and, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century,  more  cord- 
wood  goes  annually  out  of  Lincoln  to  seek  a  market 
in  Waltham,  Watertown  and  Boston  than  went  out  at 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Truly,  it  would 
have  made  glad  the  heart  of  Adam  Smith  could 
he  have  studied  this  illustration  of  the  truth  of  the 
strange  doctrine  he  taught !  As  Hamlet  long  ago 
observed  in  quite  another  connection,  —  "This  was 
sometime  a  paradox,  but  now  the  time  gives  it  proof." 

Thus  Lincoln  passed,  and  successfully  as  slowly 
passed,  through  its  ordeal  of  change,  —  its  great  re- 
volution. Beginning  with  June  17,  1844,  the  out- 
come of  the  ordeal  and  result  of  the  change  were 
fitly  commemorated  in  the  utterance  —  instinctive 
and  somewhat  bewildered  —  I  have  just  quoted  from 
the  lips  of  one  of  its  sons  on  the  26th  of  May,  1 892. 
More  than  forty-eight  years  had  elapsed  since  the 
locomotive  had  forced  its  way  by  the  banks  of  Wal- 
den,  —  over  one  third  of  Lincoln's  whole  municipal 
life! 

The  story  of  the  past  is  told.  It  remains  to  frame 
the  message  to  the  future.  To  be  complete,  the  in- 
scription on  the  milestone  must  speak  of  us,  and  of 

lOI 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

the  spot  on  which  the  column  has  to-day  halted,  as 
well  as  of  the  past  and  of  the  road  thus  far  traversed. 
How  about  the  Lincoln  that  now  is  ?  And,  whatever 
the  future  may  have  in  store,  I  am  fain  to  say  that, 
in  my  own  belief,  Lincoln  in  all  its  century  and  a 
half  of  history  has  not  seen  better  days.  The  post- 
office,  the  railroad,  the  library,  the  daily  newspaper, 
and  the  improved  school  have  all  done  their  work ; 
and  the  result  bears  witness  for  itself.  Nowhere  — 
yes  !  absolutely  nowhere  —  do  I  see  signs  of  deteri- 
oration. As  compared  with  a  century  ago,  —  much 
more  as  compared  with  the  anniversary  we  celebrate, 
—  Lincoln  is  more  populous,  more  intelligent, 
wealthier,  more  temperate  and  more  moral.  While 
of  those  classed  as  rich  there  may  within  its  limits  be 
a  larger  number,  within  those  limits  there  are  fewer 
really  poor.  With  us,  the  needy  are  housed ;  the 
sick  are  cared  for  ;  the  insane  receive  treatment.  The 
man  in  Lincoln  of  all  its  people  least  well-to-do 
when  injured  to-day  has  bestowed  on  his  case,  with- 
out cost  to  him,  a  science  and  skill  which,  a  century 
ago,  wealth  could  not  command.  Again,  the  tippling- 
room  has  been  closed.  In  his  historical  discourse 
of  six  years  ago,  Mr.  Bradley  threw  a  queer  gleam  of 
light  on  what  may  well  enough  be  referred  to  as  the 
drinking  usages  in  vogue  a  century  and  a  quarter 
since.  When  the  Rev.  William  Lawrence  died,  his 
congregation  made  proper  provision  for  his  obsequies. 
That  provision  included  the  following  items :  one 
barrel  of  cider,  five  quarts  malt  and  some  hops,  one 
gallon  wine,  one  gallon  rum,  seven  pounds  of  sugar, 

I02 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

and  one  half  pound  of  tea.  Nineteen  months  later, 
the  Rev.  Charles  Stearns  was  installed  as  successor  to 
Mr.  Lawrence.  Like  provision  was  then  also  made 
for  this  more  propitious  event.  In  that  provision 
were  included  nine  gallons  of  wine  ;  five  of  rum  ;  tea, 
coffee  and  chocolate  one  pound  each.  One  pound  of 
tea  to  fourteen  gallons  of  rum  and  wine  is  irresistibly 
suggestive  of  the  proportions  between  FalstafF's  sack 
and  bread.  In  1778,  during  the  death  agony  of  the 
continental  currency,  a  joint  meeting  was  held  of 
committees  representing  the  several  towns  of  Con- 
cord, Billerica,  Lexington,  Weston,  Stow,  Bedford, 
Acton  and  Lincoln,  and  they  attempted  the  impos- 
sible feat  of  establishing  prices  at  which  all  com- 
modities in  general  use  should  be  sold.  Among 
the  prices  thus  established  were  the  following  to 
govern  inn-holders:  Mug  of  West  India  phlip,  15 
shillings  ;  ditto,  New  England,  12  shillings  ;  Toddy, 
in  proportion.  Bowl  of  Punch,  not  set.  And  all 
this  is  so  set  down  in  Lincoln's  Book  of  Records ! 
But  when  the  consumption  of  rum  in  those  days  is 
under  discussion,  it  is  not  a  question  of  temperance. 
The  most  profitable  trade  of  all  country  stores  was 
in  spirits,  and  all  —  ministers,  doctors,  farmers  and 
squires  —  made  use  of  it  in  about  the  same  degree. 
They  habitually  ate  salted  meat ;  and  habitually 
quenched   the  resulting  thirst  with   rum.'     In  the 

*  See  the  curious  facts  and  statistics  given  on  this  subject  by  Albert 
E.  Wood  in  his  paper  published  by  the  Concord  Antiquarian  Society, 
entitled  "How  our  Great  Grandfathers  Lived."  Those  mentioned 
therein,  Mr.  Wood,  Mr.  Barrett,  Mr.  Wheeler,  etc.,  were  as  much 
Lincoln  as  Concord  men. 

103 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

stage-coach  days  there  was  a  house  of  call  at  every 
great  road  crossing ;  and  the  remains  of  three  old 
taverns,  each  of  which  once  ran  its  open  bar,  are  still 
to  be  seen  on  the  Lancaster  road,  on  the  old  turn- 
pike, and  in  the  centre  of  the  town.  By  way  of 
contrast,  the  Lincoln  of  to-day,  in  town-meeting 
assembled  now  seven  weeks  ago,  without  a  single 
dissenting  voice,  directed  its  clerk  to  cast  one  ballot 
for  the  order  prohibiting  during  the  year  all  sales  of 
spirits  within  Lincoln  limits  ! 

Other  times ;  other  men ;  other  customs  !  Are 
we,  indeed,  as  some  maintain,  degenerate  ?  As  did 
those  of  the  earlier  period  when,  on  the  yth  of 
November,  178 1,  the  Rev.  Charles  Stearns  was 
installed  as  minister  of  the  town,  and  pastor  of  the 
church  which  gathered  in  the  meeting-house  which 
preceded  this  edifice,  we  to-day  are  observing  an 
occasion  of  interest.  A  century  and  twenty-two  years 
have  since  elapsed.  Presently,  after  the  formal  cere- 
monies of  the  day,  we  also,  as  did  they,  will  sit  down 
at  the  tables,  and  partake  of  the  flesh-pots.  Now 
imagine,  were  such  an  imagination  possible,  coun- 
tenanced by  my  esteemed  friend,  Mr.  Moorfield 
Storey,  as  presiding  officer  of  the  day,  a  proportion- 
ate recurrence  to  the  menu,  or  bill  of  fare,  of  No- 
vember 7,  178 1.  We  would  have  to  dispose  of  at 
least  a  couple  of  barrels  of  cider,  approximately  a 
hogshead  of  wine,  a  barrel  more  or  less  of  rum, 
and,  possibly,  as  much  as  one  pound  of  tea.  More 
accustomed  than  we  to  heady  beverages,  they  had  no 
organ  in  those  days ;  only  a  bass  viol.    But,  as  we 

104 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

dwell  in  imagination  on  the  possibility  I  have  sug- 
gested, we  can  picture  Mr.  Storey,  at  the  close  of 
the  coming  entertainment,  leading  off  with  an  organ 
accompaniment  in  that,  to  us,  familiar  air  which  re- 
lates to  what  will  occur  in  the  "  old  town  to-night," 
and  to  the  carmine  in  which  it  will  appear  clad  when 
to-morrow's  sun  rises.  But,  as  I  have  already  said, 
—  other  times  !  —  other  customs  !  Either  we,  as 
respects  potations,  are  degenerate,  or  there  were 
giants  in  those  days. 

To  return  to  our  theme. 

In  other  respects,  also,  the  character  of  the  town 
has  changed, —  not  revolutionized,  it  has  changed 
significantly.  No  longer  purely  agricultural,  it  has 
become  more  and  more  a  residence  and,  so  to  speak, 
bedroom  community  :  —  that  is,  while  fifty  years 
ago  no  one  '  lived  here  and  yet  pursued  his  daily 
vocation — earned  his  living — elsewhere,  many  do 
so  now  ;  and  the  number  is  steadily  increasing.  The 
town-meeting,  that  great  feature  of  Massachusetts 
life,  is  no  longer  a  gathering  of  yeomen,  —  children 
of  the  soil  and  exacting  their  livelihood  from  it.  But 
it  is  still  the  genuine  town-meeting,  —  the  assembly 
of  a  little  commonwealth,  in  which  all  are  equal,  all 
freemen,  all  Americans. 

And  here  let  me  for  a  moment  speak  of  myself, 
and  my  own  experience  and  impressions ;  not  im- 

»  I  am  informed  that,  forty  years  ago,  a  single  Lincoln  resident,  and 
one  only,  Edward  Steams,  earned  his  living  in  Boston,  making  daily 
trips  each  way  between  home  and  place  of  occupation.  Some  fifty  do 
so  now. 

105 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

possibly  they  may  have  an  interest  —  the  interest  of 
novelty  and  freshness  —  even  to  those  here  dwell- 
ing three  generations  hence.  Very  distinctly  do  I 
remember  my  own  first  town-meeting  in  Lincoln, 
its  surprise  and  delight.  It  was  ten  years  ago,  — 
the  5th  of  March,  1894.  I  had  then  been  less  than 
four  months  a  resident ;  and,  a  year  before,  had  never 
but  once  set  foot  in  Lincoln.  In  1879,  I  think  it 
was,  I  came  here  one  day  officially,  as  member  of 
the  Board  of  Railroad  Commissioners,  to  investi- 
gate the  circumstances  of  a  death  at  the  grade-cross- 
ing next  east  of  the  station.  With  that  single  ex- 
ception, I  had  never  been  in  Lincoln,  except  on  a 
train  in  movement.  At  last,  on  an  almost  fairy-like 
day  in  May,  —  a  day  most  fortunate  for  me,  —  I 
was  on  the  spur  of  the  moment  induced  to  come 
out,  and  look  at  a  place  bordering  on  Fairhaven-bay, 
then  for  sale.  I  came.  It  was  the  20th  of  May, 
and  Thoreau*s  "Pleasant  Meadows,"  Fairhaven-bay, 
and  the  stretching  valley  of  the  Sudbury  with  the 
Maynard  hills  beyond,  lay  basking  in  the  fresh 
spring  sunlight,  and  their  germinal  perfection.  I  saw 
what  I  wanted  made  ready  to  my  hand  ;  and,  moved 
by  a  reckless  impulse,  I  made  myself  its  master 
on  the  spot.  I  have  since  come  to  regard  my  so 
doing  as  an  inspiration ;  as  such,  thanking  God  for 
it!  Just  six  months  after  I  here  made  my  home. 
Presently  town-meeting  day  came  round.  At  town- 
meetings,  I  was  no  novice.  I  had,  in  fact,  attended 
them  for  250  years;  at  first  in  Braintree,  —  though 
there  in  the  persons  of  my  ancestors,  —  but,  more 

106 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

recently,  in  Quincy  myself.  In  them  also  I  had 
habitually  taken  an  active  part.  A  day  of  change 
came,  —  a  change  I  greatly  deplored  ;  it  was,  how- 
ever, inevitable,  and,  as  such,  in  it  I  silently  ac- 
quiesced. Quincy  outgrew  town  government.  A 
large  alien  population  by  degrees  came  in,  and  secret 
organizations  made  themselves  felt,  perverting  the 
old  town-meeting  to  factional  ends.  I  saw  the  system 
break  down  ;  and  its  break-down  grieved  me.  Then 
Quincy  became  a  city,  —  a  suburban  municipality. 
And  at  once  almost  I  woke  to  a  consciousness  of 
the  fact  that  the  home  of  my  youth  and  my  earlier 
manhood  was  gone,  —  gone,  never  to  return  !  Its 
whole  individuality  seemed  departed.  It  was  the 
same  place  outwardly  in  all  essential  respects ;  but 
I  was  a  stranger  in  it.  Its  traditions  no  longer  held ; 
spiritually  it  was  defunct.  It  might  be  a  "  live  "  city 
to  others ;  to  me  it  was  a  dead  town.  I  walked  its 
streets  a  ghost,  —  superfluous,  lagged.  Where  all 
had  once  been  neighbors  and  familiar,  I  now  knew 
few ;  and  fewer  still  seemed  to  know  me.  So,  cut- 
ting the  knot,  though  with  a  sharp  pang,  I  betook 
myself  elsewhere.  And  now  town-meeting  day  had 
come  in  the  place  of  my  new  abode. 

As  I  need  not  say,  since  the  period  of  De  Tocque- 
ville,  —  that  is,  for  sixty  years, — the  New  England 
town-meeting  has,  as  a  political  institution,  been 
world  renowned ;  and,  familiar  as  I  myself  was  with 
it  and  its  methods,  I  remember  well  my  silent  sur- 
prise when  one  day  the  late  John  Fiske,  an  authority 
on  New  England  history,  informed  me,  in  an  inci- 

107 


THE  TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

dental  sort  of  way,  that  he  had  never  been  present  at 
one.  I  could  hardly  have  been  more  surprised  had 
some  eminent  practising  surgeon  told  me  that  he 
had  never  witnessed  a  dissection.  Now  it  so  hap- 
pened that  in  March,  1894,  an  English  friend  of 
mine  was  here,  and  he  had  expressed  a  wish  to  see  a 
genuine  New  England  town-meeting ;  so  I  told  him 
that,  would  he  come  to  Lincoln,  I  thought  I  could 
gratify  him.  I  had  never  been  to  one  there,  but  I 
imagined  I  knew  what  it  would  be  like.  He  gladly 
accepted  my  invitation,  and  together  we  went,  — 
both  strangers.  Very  vividly  do  I  recall  his  curiosity, 
amusement  and  delight.  For  myself,  I  felt  at  home 
at  once.  I  was  back  among  my  native  surroundings. 
A  new-comer,  I  naturally  took  no  part;  but  the 
plain,  orderly,  common-sense  procedure,  the  rough, 
manly  equality,  the  give-and-take  of  town-meeting, 
were  all  there,  and  there  in  perfection.  It  was  not  the 
crowded  hall  and  swaying,  shouting  mass  to  which 
I  had  of  late  years  grown  accustomed  at  Quincy ;  it 
was  the  genuine  village  gathering  of  the  earlier,  and, 
in  that  respect,  the  infinitely  better  time.  I  recog- 
nized instinctively  every  familiar  character,  though 
not  one  face  or  name  did  I  know ;  —  there  was  the 
moderator,  sufficiently  skilled  in  parliamentary  law 
and  the  conduct  of  business ;  and,  by  him,  the  tra- 
ditional town-clerk.  On  the  front  bench  was  the 
chairman  of  the  selectmen  ;  and  the  shrewd,  humor- 
ous squire  at  his  side.  The  leader  of  the  opposition 
was  not  far  to  seek ;  nor  the  village  demagogue ; 
nor  the  town-meeting  orator ;  nor  the  town-meeting 

108 


The  Flint  House 
(p.  222) 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

bore.  The  prober  into  the  details  and  mysteries  of 
the  town-book  was  also  in  evidence.  I  knew  them 
all ;  I  felt  myself  one  of  them.  Not  so  my  EngMsh 
friend.  To  him  it  was  novel,  and  yet  not  altogether 
strange.  It  was  the  Commons  House  of  Parliament 
in  little ;  and,  watching  it  with  the  deepest  interest,  he 
later  in  discussion  referred  to  Mr.  Samuel  Hartwell, 
then  chairman  of  the  selectmen,  as  the  "  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer,"  and  to  the  list  of  appropriations 
as  the  "  Budget ; "  while  Mr.  Wheeler  became  the 
"  Speaker,"  and  the  town-clerk  remained  his  wonder 
and  admiration.  It  was,  I  am  fain  to  say,  a  typical 
town-meeting;  one  I  was  glad  to  have  witnessed  by 
a  foreigner  of  intelligence.  It  showed  our  New 
England  institutions  in  their  home,  and  at  work. 

It  has  been  so  since.  As  it  stands  to-day,  I  bear 
witness  that  Lincoln  town  government  represents 
that  form  of  government  in  a  shape  approaching  per- 
fection. Made  up  almost  exclusively  of  Americans, 
traditionally  accustomed  to  the  forms,  not  so  large  as 
to  be  unwieldy  and  yet  large  enough  to  have  an  ele- 
ment of  uncertainty  as  to  outcome  in  it,  the  voting  roll 
of  the  entire  town  can  be  called  in  ten  minutes,  and 
the  annual  warrant  is  disposed  of  at  a  single  session. 

What  more  remains  to  be  said  ?  What  further 
message  can  be  sent  down  for  delivery  to  a  future 
generation,  as  it  plants  yet  another  milestone  ?  I 
think  of  little.  The  record  of  these  days,  unlike 
those  we  are  here  to  commemorate,  is  full,  and  he 
who  runs  may  read.  It  will  tell  of  a  town  no  longer 
remote ;  and  one  to  which  the  fact  that  it  is  set  upon 

109 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

a  hill  IS  a  commendation,  not  a  drawback.  The  nat- 
ural beauties  of  Lincoln  are  plain  to  see,  whether  you 
float  along  the  Sudbury,  or,  from  the  summit  of  the 
hill,  view  the  broad  stretch  of  rolling  and  wooded 
country  off  to  Wachusett  and  the  hills  of  New 
Hampshire,  or  walk  or  drive  through  its  forest-lined 
roads.  The  population  is  not  dense,  and  Nature  still 
holds  its  own.  As  a  community  it  is  neither  large 
nor  wealthy.  The  statistics  tell  us  that  we  number 
but  one  inhabitant  to  some  seven  and  two  thirds ' 
acres,  and  our  worldly  possessions  are  estimated  at 
^2000  to  each  inhabitant.  The  map  tells  the  story 
of  our  roads ;  the  succession  of  town-books  is  the 
record  of  our  finances,  our  schools  and  our  library. 
As  a  community  we  are  not  torn  by  dissensions ; 
though,  in  this  respect,  it  was  not  always  so.  Indeed, 
I  am  told  that,  from  a  time  which  memory  and  tra- 
dition fail  to  recall,  the  Lincoln  of  former  days  was 
rent  in  twain,  —  divided  as  a  house  about  to  fall. 
But  it  did  not  fall ;  on  the  contrary  it  seemed  to 
thrive  through  contention.  Old  residents,  —  men 
whose  recollections  run  far  back  of  this  railroad 
epoch,  assure  me  that  the  North  and  South  feud 
was  an  inheritance  from  other  generations,  and  a  con- 
dition of  affairs  which  long  ago  ceased  to  exist.  To 
a  certain  extent  it  was  Homeric,  for  it  flavored  of 
the  muster-fields  and  the  New  England  Olympic 
games.  It  was  a  rivalry  of  runners  and  wrestlers — of 
those  throwing  the  hammer,  and  those  shooting  at  the 

»  Inhabitants,  11275  acres,  8500.    See  Wheeler,  in  Drake's  Mid- 
dUseXy  vol.  i,  p.  34. 

IIO 


A   MILESTONE   PLANTED 

butts.  There  were  giants  then  ;  and  the  giants  of  the 
South,  it  is  asserted,  contended,  not  unsuccessfully, 
with  those  of  the  North.  Hence  jealousies  and  heart- 
burnings ;  and  these  became  chronic,  and  hereditary. 
Gradually,  the  issues  changed ;  but  the  feud  re- 
mained. What  it  was  all  about,  no  one  seemed  to 
know;  and,  curiously  enough,  no  one  now  refers  to  it 
except  in  a  humorous  way.  But,  as  between  North 
and  South,  this  town  was,  prior  to  1890,  the  nation 
in  miniature.  The  railroad  was  Lincoln's  Mason- 
and-Dixon's  line.  So  bitter,  I  am  assured,  was  the 
feeling,  that  it  was  sufficient  for  one  section  to  desire 
anything  to  have  the  other  unalterably  opposed  to 
it ;  and  when,  moreover,  in  town-meeting  the  North 
and  Centre  carried  an  issue  over  the  South,  the 
meeting-house  bell  was  rung  in  noisy  triumph.  It 
was  a  very  parlous  period  ;  but,  like  most  such 
periods,  it  wore  itself  gradually  away.  I  have,  more- 
over, been  told  that  one  distinctly  alleviating  influ- 
ence —  again  Homeric  —  was  the  appearance  at 
school  from  the  South  of  the  daughter,  passing  fair, 
of  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  distinctive  families 
in  that  section.  This  maiden,  —  quite  a  Lincoln 
Briseis, —  found  favorin  the  eyes  of  the  young  men 
of  the  Centre  and  North,  and  they  by  degrees  came  to 
think  that  conditions  could  not  be  altogether  bad  or 
hopeless  among  a  people  of  whom  this  was  the  con- 
summate flower.  And  so,  gentler  sentiments  assum- 
ing sway,  they  at  last  began  to  ask  the  why  and  the 
wherefore  of  it  all.  When  my  time  began  it  was 
over  ;  but  I  am  assured  that,  while  it  lasted,  —  and 

III 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

it  lasted  long,  —  it  was  a  great  and  classic  feud.  The 
opportunity  was  not  lacking  ;  the  theme  was  there  ; 
the  village  Homer  only  failed  us. 

But  now  there  is  peace  and  good-will  in  town- 
meetings,  where  we  still  adhere  to  the  institutions  of 
our  fathers.  While  liberal  in  expenditure,  the  town 
is  not  extravagant ;  nor,  in  these  days  of  so-called 
"  graft,"  does  any  breath  of  calumny  attach  to  those 
by  whom  our  public  affairs  are  administered.  That 
with  us  more  than  with  others  the  limit  of  improve- 
ment has  been  reached,  we  do  not  believe ;  mean- 
while, as  it  addresses  itself  with  confidence  to  the 
future,  a  reasonable  contentment  dwells  within  Lin- 
coln's borders. 

And  so  ends  the  anniversary.  The  milestone  is 
planted  ;  the  record  is  inscribed  upon  it.  We  have 
looked  back  over  the  road  we  have  travelled ;  we 
have  surveyed  the  land  in  which  we  dwell ;  the  holi- 
day approaches  its  close.  With  to-morrow*s  sun  we 
will  gather  together,  old  and  young,  and,  once  more 
shouldering  our  burdens,  resume  the  line  of  march. 
The  road  of  the  future  will  doubtless,  as  did  that  of 
the  past,  lead  over  hill  as  well  as  through  dale ;  but, 
when  the  next  resting-place  is  reached,  let  us  set  out 
in  the  hope  that  our  descendants  may  say  it  has  been 
not  less  well  with  them  than  it  was  with  us  and  with 
our  fathers.  It  is  a  goodly  land  ;  and  may  they  in 
their  day  feel  blest  in  its  possession,  no  less  than  do 
we  in  ours. 


112 


APPENDIX  A 

(Page  27) 

Fifty  years  ago,  at  the  close  of  the  first  century  of  Lin- 
coln's incorporated  life,  no  study  whatever  had  been  made 
of  the  geology  of  Middlesex  County.  Since  then,  and  espe- 
cially of  recent  years,  it  has  been  gone  over  repeatedly  with 
care,  and  the  marks  of  the  student's  hammer  are  everywhere 
to  be  found.  Many  data  have  been  collected,  and  certain 
conclusions  reached.  These  have  interest  in  themselves  ; 
but,  not  improbably,  their  chief  value  hereafter  will  be  found 
as  a  basis  of  comparison ;  for  hitherto  the  geologists  have 
found  recurring  occasion  to  revise  the  conclusions  thereto- 
fore confidently  reached.  The  ice  age,  for  instance,  was 
first  fixed  at  an  antiquity  measured  in  years  by  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  ;  since  gradually  contracted  to  the  more  rea- 
sonable period  given  in  the  text.  So  also  as  respects  varia- 
tions of  the  polar  axis.  That  the  theories,  beliefs  and  con- 
clusions now  held  will  undergo  similar,  though  continually 
diminishing,  modification,  scarcely  admits  of  doubt.  The 
rocks  and  deposits  of  Lincoln  afford  an  interesting  field  of 
study.  The  following  memorandum  of  results  concerning 
it,  and  them,  up  to  this  time  reached,  has  been  prepared  by 
Mr.  J.  W.  Goldthwait  of  the  Harvard  University  Geolo- 
gical Department.  In  its  field  it,  also,  is  of  the  milestone 
character. 

The  geology  of  an  area  like  Lincoln  involves  the  study 
of  two  rather  different  kinds  of  things,  —  (a)  the  bed  rock,  or 
solid  foundation,  of  the  region,  and  {b)  the  surface  features ; 

113 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

namely,  the  shapes  given  to  the  hills  and  valleys  by  erosion 
of  rain  and  rivers  and  by  the  old  North  American  ice  sheet, 
and  the  deposits  of  rock  waste,  chiefly  of  glacial  origin, 
which  have  been  spread  over  the  bed  rock  surface  so  as 
generally  to  conceal  it.  In  other  words,  geology  includes  not 
only  the  study  of  rocks  but  the  study  of  everything  which 
is  usually  called  the  "  ground."  Its  object  is  to  understand 
the  origin  of  these  things, —  how  they  were  produced,  and 
what  they  really  mean.  In  this  paper,  then,  a  certain  order 
will  be  followed ;  the  features  of  geological  interest  will  be 
considered  roughly  in  order  of  their  age,  the  bed  rock  his- 
tory first,  then  the  history  of  the  development  of  the  topo- 
graphy, and  last  of  all  the  effects  of  the  great  ice  sheet. 

Bed  Rock  Geology 

The  rock  mass,  of  which  we  see  occasional  outcropping 
ledges  about  the  town,  is  composed  of 

{a)  Ancient  seashore  sediments,  barely  recognizable  as 
such,  because  they  have  been  so  completely  transformed 
or  "  metamorphosed  "  by  compression,  squeezing,  and  the 
action  of  subterranean  heat. 

(b)  Other  metamorphic  rocks,  including  some  which 
probably  broke  their  way  up  into  these  old  sediments  in  a 
molten  state  some  time  before  the  great  metamorphism  took 
place,  for  they  share  it ;  and  some  which  may  represent  the 
old  original  sea  floor  on  which  the  sediments  were  laid  down. 

{c)  Rocks,  once  molten  or  "  igneous,"  which  found  their 
way  into  the  others  as  subterranean  lavas,  but  after  the 
rocks  of  the  first  two  groups  had  been  metamorphosed. 

It  may  be  well  to  take  these  up  in  order,  to  see  some- 
thing of  their  history. 

The  first  two  groups  have  already  been  spoken  of  as 
"  metamorphic "  rocks.    Under  this  head   come  all  rocks 

114 


APPENDIX 

which  have  undergone  great  transformation  in  their  physi- 
cal and  mineralogical  make-up,  by  reason  of  that  intense 
heat  and  pressure  which  seems  to  be  continually  exerted 
on  the  earth's  crust  while  the  earth  cools  and  shrinks.  It  is 
believed  to  be  chiefly  this  constant  shrinkage  that  gives  rise 
to  great  wrinklings  of  the  earth's  crust,  determining  the 
location  of  mountain  ranges.  Wherever  wrinkling  of  this 
sort  has  gone  on,  the  rocks  show  the  effects  of  it  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent.  One  result  is  the  upturning  and  folding  of 
the  rocks  ;  but  when  the  process  is  long  continued  the  rocks 
suffer  also  great  changes  of  structure,  —  their  component 
crystals  or  grains  are  rearranged,  flattened  out  and  fused, 
and  new  minerals  may  be  born.  A  rock  thus  transformed, 
or  metamorphosed,  often  has  a  distinct  banding  or  "  folia- 
tion "  in  a  direction  perpendicular  to  that  of  compression. 
Gneisses  and  schists  are  two  great  classes  of  foliated  rocks, 
—  the  former  being  massive  and  firm,  and  the  latter  split- 
ting easily  along  the  foliation.  Whether  a  certain  gneiss, 
or  a  certain  schist,  was  originally  a  sedimentary  deposit  or  a 
molten  rock  mass  is  often  very  hard  to  tell.  Other  meta- 
morphic  rocks,  however,  such  as  quartzite  and  marble,  which 
need  not  have  foliation,  are  clearly  derived  from  stratified 
or  sedimentary  deposits.  In  Lincoln  several  sorts  of  meta- 
morphic  rocks  appear  at  the  surface ;  but  only  one  or  two 
need  be  mentioned.* 

Quartzite  occurs  in  several  parts  of  the  township,  but 
the  main  belt  is  in  the  southeastern  part,  along  the  back  of 
Mount  Tabor.  The  area  in  which  quartzite  ledges  occur  is 
from  a  quarter  to  a  half  mile  wide,  and  can  be  traced  in 
a  southwest  direction  as  far  as  Reeves'  Hill  in  Wayland. 
Quartzite  is  a  hard  firm  rock,  always  light  colored  —  bluish 
or  pinkish  —  and  sugary  in  texture.  It  was  probably  once 
a  sandstone,  or  rock  formed  from  thick  beds  of  sand  hard- 
ened by  pressure  of  overlaying  deposits  ;  but  by  metamor- 

115 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

phism  the  original  sand  grains  have  been  fused,  and  partly 
turned  into  minute  quartz  crystals.  The  quartzite  is  at 
least  six  hundred  feet  thick. 

Half  a  mile  southwest  of  Sandy  Pond  is  a  ledge  of  mar- 
ble, a  rock  which  is  of  local  interest  more  from  its  rarity 
than  anything  else.  It  is  a  nearly  white  rock,  crystallized 
with  a  fine  grain.  Marble  of  this  sort  is  re-crystallized 
limestone,  originally  a  calcareous  shell  or  slime  deposit  col- 
lected on  the  sea  floor,  and  later  consolidated  by  the  weight 
of  beds  laid  down  on  top  of  it.  Both  heat  and  the  action  of 
percolating  waters  bring  about  the  crystallization  of  the 
mass  first  into  limestone  and,  later,  into  thoroughly  crys- 
tallized marble.  On  account  of  its  organic  origin  marble 
might  be  expected  to  contain  fossils  ;  but  often  the  meta- 
morphism  has  entirely  obliterated  them,  as  seems  to  be  the 
case  with  the  Lincoln  rock.  At  several  places  in  this  local- 
ity the  rock  has  been  quarried,  and  where  it  is  thus  freshly 
exposed  one  can  see  plainly  the  way  the  original  beds  have 
been  folded.  The  thickness  of  the  formation  is  about  two 
hundred  feet. 

What  may  once  have  been  a  subterranean  lava,  forced 
into  the  sediments,  is  a  broad  belt  of  hornblende-schist 
almost  a  mile  wide,  running  in  a  northeast-southwest  direc- 
tion through  Sandy  Pond.  This  is  a  rock  of  dark  gray  color 
and  variable  texture,  containing  a  good  deal  of  the  black 
mineral  called  hornblende,  as  well  as  mica  and  the  two 
common  light-colored  minerals,  quartz  and  feldspar.  The 
mass  of  rock  itself,  and  the  foliated  structure  of  it,  run  from 
northeast  to  southwest,  showing  that  the  squeezing  took 
place  in  a  direction  northwest-southeast.  This  trend  of  foli- 
ation of  the  rocks,  indeed,  occurs  clear  across  Massachu- 
setts, indicating  that  the  wrinkling  of  the  rocks  accompanied 
the  formation  of  the  Appalachian  mountain  system,  or  at 
least  of  a  part  of  it. 

ii6 


APPENDIX 

A  belt  of  granite  stretches  in  a  northeast-southwest  di- 
rection along  the  northwest  border  of  the  township,  from 
the  head  of  Meade  Brook  to  the  vicinity  of  Walden  Pond. 
Since  granite  is  composed  of  different  minerals  crystallized 
out  in  much  the  same  manner  that  any  substance  like 
molten  sugar  crystallizes  on  cooling,  it  is  believed  that  the 
rock  mass  was  once  hot  and  plastic,  like  lava,  but  that  it 
cooled  slowly  to  a  solid  state,  —  so  slowly  that  distinct 
crystals  were  developed.  Lavas  from  volcanoes  cool  too  fast 
for  such  a  complete  crystallization  as  this,  because  they  are 
on  the  surface.  Granites  and  other  coarse-grained  igneous 
rocks  are  thought  to  have  been  formed  deep  down  below 
the  earth's  surface,  and  to  be  visible  now  because  long- 
continued  erosion  has  brought  the  surface  far  down  through 
the  original  rock  mass.  The  presence  of  mica  in  abundance 
in  the  Lincoln  granite  makes  it  a  true  granite,  according 
to  accepted  terminology,  whereas  the  so-called  "  granites  " 
of  Quincy  and  Rockport,  which  have  no  mica,  are  not 
true  granites,  but  hornblende  -  granites.  One  noticeable 
feature  in  the  Lincoln  rock  is  the  occurrence  of  irregular 
veins  or  tongues  of  coarse-grained  quartz  and  feldspar  rock 
called  "  pegmatite,"  which  shoot  through  the  granite  in 
every  direction.  It  is  possible  that  this  Lincoln  granite  is 
the  oldest  rock  in  the  township,  and  represents  the  rock 
floor  on  which  the  marine  sediments  (since  metamorphosed 
into  quartzite,  marble,  and  schist)  were  spread.  This, 
however,  is  hardly  more  than  a  conjecture. 

Another  northeast-southwest  belt  of  rock,  running  through 
the  township  from  Beaver  Pond  to  the  old  turnpike  west 
of  Mount  Tabor,  is  of  hornblende-gneiss.  The  rock  varies 
greatly  in  appearance,  but  is  usually  grayish  or  pinkish 
where  weathered,  with  more  or  less  foliation.  In  intimate 
association  with  it  is  a  black  rock  called  diabase,  which  oc- 
curs in  bands  sometimes  sharply  marked  off  from  the  gneiss, 

117 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

and  sometimes  blended  with  it  along  the  contact.  This 
mixture  of  gneiss  and  diabase  seems  to  be  a  very  firm  re- 
sistant rock,  for  it  makes  the  ridge  of  high  ground  northeast 
of  Beaver  Pond.  Softer  rocks  on  either  side  have  been  worn 
down  to  form  the  valleys. 

Of  several  other  sorts  of  rock  that  are  known  to  occur 
in  Lincoln,  only  two  need  be  mentioned.  Both  of  these 
occur  in  straight  strips,  or  "  dikes,"  where  fissures  in  the 
main  rock  mass  were  opened  and  filled  with  lava,  which 
cooled  there  into  firm  rock.  Diabase,  or  "  trap  "  dikes,  oc- 
cur sparingly  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  town.  They  are 
black  where  freshly  broken,  but  weather  with  a  brownish 
surface.  "Aplite"  dikes  occur  in  a  hill  three  quarters  of 
a  mile  southwest  of  Sandy  Pond,  south  of  North  Street. 
These  are  light  colored,  and  made  up  of  quartz  and  feld- 
spar. The  aplite  and  diabase  of  these  dikes  are  the  two 
youngest  rocks  of  the  region,  because  they  fill  fissures  in 
the  others,  —  that  is,  because  they  "  cut  "  the  gneisses, 
schists,  etc. 

Concerning  the  age  of  the  rocks,  very  little  can  be  said. 
Obscure  markings  in  the  marble  bear  a  resemblance  to  fos- 
sil pteropods  like  some  found  at  Nahant.  If  these  are  truly 
fossils,  the  rocks  belong  to  the  "  Lower  Cambrian  "  pe- 
riod ;  but  it  is  very  doubtful.  At  any  rate,  the  gneisses, 
schists,  quartzite  and  marble  are  very  old,  for  they  have 
undergone  great  metamorphism ;  and,  after  that,  they  have 
been  invaded  at  different  times  by  igneous  rocks  of  different 
sorts,  including  last  of  all  the  dike-rocks,  diabase  and  aplite. 
The  bed  rock  history,  then,  is  a  complex  series  of  events, 
including  the  accumulation  of  thick  beds  of  sediments  under 
water,  the  compression  and  upheaval  of  them  by  mountain- 
building  forces  by  which  the  rocks  have  been  completely 
metamorphosed,  and  the  intrusion  of  subterranean  lavas 
into  the  mass  both  before  and  after  the  mountain-building 

ii8 


APPENDIX 

process  was  most  active.    All  this  probably  involves  many 
millions  of  years. 

Surface  Form 

The  form  of  the  hills  and  valleys  hereabouts  has  been 
determined  by  two  great  geological  agencies  of  erosion,  — 
water  and  ice,  acting  with  some  regard  to  the  rock  struc- 
ture into  which  they  have  deeply  carved.  Although  the 
shape  and  trend  of  the  hills  of  Lincoln  may  seem  at  first 
sight  to  show  little  regularity,  a  careful  inspection  will 
bring  out  the  fact  of  a  rather  persistent  northeast-southwest 
trend  of  hills  and  valleys.  So  far  as  this  pattern  holds  good, 
it  doubtless  shows  the  control  of  rock  structure ;  for  the 
northeast-southwest  rock  belts  already  spoken  of  are  not  all 
equally  resistant  to  the  destructive  action  of  rain  and  rivers, 
and  consequently  the  harder  belts  are  left  standing  up  as 
hills  or  ridges. 

Another  feature  about  the  topography,  but  one  which 
would  hardly  be  appreciated  except  when  it  is  seen  from 
the  top  of  one  of  the  higher  hills  of  the  town,  is  the  rela- 
tive accordance  in  height  of  the  hills.  Here,  in  the  eastern 
part  of  the  State,  it  is  not  very  striking ;  for,  though  the  hills 
rise  to  the  same  general  height,  they  are  far  apart  and  have 
rather  rounded  summits.  Farther  west,  however,  in  the 
Berkshires,  where  the  hilltops  cover  a  greater  part  of  the 
total  area,  their  accordance  is  very  marked,  and  a  view  of 
the  landscape  shows  a  rather  flat  skyline.  A  much  more 
perfect  case  of  such  a  flattish  upland  country  occurs  in 
Brittany,  a  widely  accepted  explanation  for  it  being  that  the 
region,  probably  originally  mountainous,  was  worn  down 
lower  and  lower,  by  natural  process  of  erosion  by  atmos- 
phere, rain  and  rivers,  until  it  became  nearly  flat,  —  a 
"  peneplain,"  —  and  stood  close  to  sea  level ;  that  it  was  then 
tilted  up  to  form  a  low  plateau,  and  the  rivers,  with  steep- 

119 


THE   TOWN    OF    LINCOLN 

ened  slopes  and  renewed  energy,  cut  down  their  valleys  be- 
neath the  plateau  level.  In  the  case  of  New  England  the 
complexly  folded  structure  of  the  rocks  and  their  extreme 
metamorphism  indicate  that  at  one  time  the  whole  region 
was  mountainous.  The  present  low-rolling  topography  is 
not  at  all  appropriate  to  such  a  complex  rock  structure. 
Apparently  the  mountains  were  worn  down  to  a  gently  roll- 
ing country,  and  then  the  peneplain  was  tilted  up,  and  again 
somewhat  cut  into  by  streams.  Since  the  upland  skyline 
rises  steadily  towards  the  northwest,  the  uplift  of  the  pene- 
plain must  have  been  greatest  in  that  part,  so  as  to  give  the 
greatest  slant  towards  the  southeast.  So  the  rather  flat  sky- 
line that  one  sees  from  the  top  of  the  Lincoln  hills  may  re- 
present an  old  peneplain,  while  the  valleys  of  to-day  record 
the  work  of  the  streams  since  the  peneplain  was  uplifted. 
Wachusett  and  other  hills  that  rise  far  above  the  general 
upland  level  are  considered  to  be  residual  masses,  never 
worn  down  to  the  peneplain,  because  they  are  composed  of 
harder  rock  and  were  situated  near  the  headwaters  of  the 
streams  that  reduced  the  surface  of  the  country.  These 
abnormally  high  hills  have  been  named  "  monadnocks," 
after  the  New  Hampshire  example.  The  reduction  of  the 
surface  to  the  peneplain  is  placed  by  geologists  in  "  Cre- 
taceous "  time ;  for  all  the  rock  waste  produced  by  the 
wearing  down  of  the  mountains  to  the  lowland  must  have 
been  swept  seaward,  and  deposited  as  sediment  along  the 
coast ;  and  cretaceous  strata  occur  on  Long  Island,  Mar- 
tha's Vineyard  and  elsewhere,  which  seem  to  be  part  of 
this  waste. 

One  more  topographic  feature  should  be  mentioned, 
before  considering  the  work  of  the  ice  sheet  on  Lincoln 
topography.  It  is  the  long  steep  rock  escarpment  that  runs 
along  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  township,  from  Mount 
Tabor  southward  as  far  as  Kendall  Green.    The  unusual 

120 


APPENDIX 

straightness  of  this  escarpment  and  its  steepness  suggest 
that  it  is  a  somewhat  worn  "  fault-scarp,"  or  clifF  produced 
by  the  upheaval  of  the  whole  rock  mass  on  one  side  of  a 
deep  fracture,  —  the  fracture  in  this  case  running  some- 
where along  the  base  of  the  clifF,  and  the  uplifted  block 
being  on  the  western  side  of  it.  The  suggestion  of  faulting 
is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  near  the  supposed  fracture  or 
"  fault  line  "  (east  of  Mount  Tabor,  on  the  eastern  side  of 
the  Cambridge  reservoir)  the  diorite  rock  of  that  region  is 
cut  by  two  fractures  along  which  there  has  been  some  slip- 
ping and  displacement,  polishing  of  the  rock  surfaces  along 
the  planes  of  fracture,  giving  what  are  called  "  slickensides." 
These  two  fault  planes  run  northeast-southwest,  or  roughly 
parallel  to  the  escarpment,  and  so  they  may  be  minor  frac- 
tures of  a  parallel  set. 

Glacial  History 

At  the  beginning  of  the  glacial  period  —  probably  a 
score  or  even  scores  of  thousands  of  years  ago  —  New 
England  had  already  gone  through  the  geological  history 
just  outlined.  The  rock  foundation  had  been  built  piece  by 
piece,  it  had  been  wrinkled  up  into  mountains,  worn  down 
to  a  lowland,  then  raised  to  a  slanting  position,  and  exten- 
sively cut  into  again  by  streams.  Over  this  low  upland  of 
hills  and  valleys  came  the  North  American  ice  sheet,  scrap- 
ing away  all  the  soil,  planing  the  surface  down  into  firm 
rock,  tearing  and  plucking  blocks  from  exposed  ledges,  and 
thus  changing  the  shape  of  the  surface  to  a  considerable 
degree.  When  later  the  ice  sheet  melted  back,  the  rubbish 
that  it  had  collected  was  spread  out  in  deposits  of  different 
sorts  over  the  rock  surface,  and  New  England  took  on  the 
appearance  that  it  has  to-day. 

The  nature  of  the  ice  sheet  can  be  appreciated  by  reading 
one  of  the  several  good  accounts  of  it,  like  G.  F.  Wright's 

121 


THE   TOWN    OF    LINCOLN 

"  The  Great  Ice  Age."  The  North  American  glacier  was 
unlike  modern  Alpine  glaciers  in  that  it  was  not  confined 
to  the  valleys  but  covered  the  whole  region,  so  that  not 
even  Mount  Washington  stuck  up  through  the  ice  fields. 
Ours  was  a  "  continental  glacier,"  like  the  Greenland  ice 
cap.  Its  centre  of  accumulation,  or  rather  its  centres,  for 
it  had  three,  were  near  Hudson*s  Bay ;  and  starting  at  these 
points  it  spread  out  radially  in  all  directions,  as  an  advan- 
cing sheet,  until  it  covered  the  northern  part  of  the  United 
States,  including  all  of  New  England  as  far  south  as  Long 
Island,  Martha's  Vineyard  and  Nantucket.  The  cause  of 
the  glacial  period  has  been  discussed  for  many  years,  and  is 
still  in  dispute  ;  but  one  apparently  good  explanation  is  that 
the  Gulf  Stream  was  turned  from  its  course  by  a  wrinkling 
up  of  the  sea  bottom,  and  the  climate  of  North  America 
was  thereby  modified  to  one  of  great  snow  precipitation. 
Deflection  of  currents  is  known  to  have  occurred  in  other 
cases,  as  for  instance  the  Japan  current,  which  was  shut 
out  of  Behring  Sea  when  the  Aleutian  Island  ridge  was  up- 
heaved ;  and,  in  a  case  like  that,  the  climate  would  probably 
be  seriously  affected. 

The  work  that  the  ice  sheet  did,  however,  is  much  better 
understood.    In  Lincoln  it  left  its  marks  in  several  ways. 

In  the  first  place,  the  form  of  the  hills  shows  glacial 
action.  The  northwest  sides  have  gentle  slopes,  and  the 
few  outcrops  there  are  low  and  rounded  ;  the  southeast 
slopes,  on  the  other  hand,  are  abrupt  and  ragged,  with  more 
abundant  outcrops.  The  ice  moved  over  the  country  from 
north-northwest  to  south-southeast,  and,  as  it  ascended  the 
hills,  it  smoothed  the  "  struck  "  side  but  tore  or  "  plucked  " 
away  blocks  from  the  leeward  side.  Where  a  rock  surface 
has  been  recently  stripped  of  soil  it  may  be  fresh  enough  to 
show  not  only  the  smoothness  peculiar  to  glaciated  surfaces 
but   also  the    scratches  or  "  striae "  made   by  boulders  or 

122 


The  Dr.  Russell  House 

Residence  of  Misses  L.  Jennie  and  Elizabeth  Chapin 

(p.  223) 


I 


APPENDIX 

pebbles  drawn  across  the  surface  by  the  ice.  In  both  large 
and  small  ways,  then,  the  erosive  action  of  the  ice  sheet  is 
illustrated. 

Glacial  boulders,  or  "  erratics,"  are  also  evidence  of  the 
ice  age.  They  are  merely  blocks  of  rock  that  were  torn  up 
by  the  ice  and  carried  along,  suffering  a  good  deal  of  round- 
ing and  smoothing  as  they  went ;  and,  finally,  as  the  ice 
melted  away,  tumbling  or  settling  to  the  ground.  Often 
they  are  very  large,  as  for  instance  one  within  sight  of 
Walden  road,  on  the  old  Baker  farm.  Most  of  the  boulders 
in  Lincoln  are  made  of  rock  similar  to  the  bed  rock  near  by, 
so  they  probably  have  travelled  only  a  short  distance.  Peg- 
matite, diorite,  and  granite  are  the  most  abundant. 

Boulders  are  of  course  only  the  larger  fragments  of  rub- 
bish left  by  the  ice  sheet.  If  we  leave  out  the  alluvium, 
which  is  glacial  rubbish  worked  over  in  recent  times  by 
streams,  all  the  soil  cover  belongs  to  glacial  deposits  of  one 
sort  or  another.  Some  of  it  is  "  ground  moraine,"  or  "  till," 
deposited  directly  by  the  plastic  ice  wherever  the  ice  cur- 
rents were  too  weak  to  carry  off  the  supply  of  waste ;  and 
other  parts  of  it  are  gravel  deposits  derived  from  the  ice 
sheet,  but  laid  down  through  the  agency  of  streams  while 
the  ice  sheet  melted  away. 

Till  occurs  abundantly  throughout  the  higher  ground,  in 
patches  or  sheets  ;  it  is  piled  up  rather  thickly  on  the 
northern  sides  of  many  of  the  hills,  for  instance,  the  one 
northeast  and  the  one  southwest  of  Sandy  Pond.  Without 
the  glacial  deposits,  these  two  hills  would  probably  trend 
more  definitely  in  a  northeast-southwest  direction,  following 
the  rock  structure ;  but  the  ice  moving  across  them  in  a 
nearly  perpendicular  direction  has  given  them  a  north-south 
trend.  The  hill  halfway  between  the  village  and  the  station 
is  a  "  drumlin,"  or  high  mound  of  till,  lenticular  in  shape. 
Hagar  Hill  in  South  Lincoln  is  another.    There  seem  to  be 

123 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

no  other  true  drumlins  in  the  town,  although  they  occur 
throughout  the  State,  and  are  very  common  in  and  around 
Boston  Harbor.  These  drumlins  bear  the  same  relation  to 
the  ice  sheet  that  sand  bars  bear  to  a  river,  or  sand  dunes 
bear  to  winds ;  they  are  accumulations  of  waste  brought 
about  by  the  local  inability  of  the  ice  currents  to  carry  the 
load  given  them. 

Glacial  gravels  occur  in  Lincoln  almost  wholly  on  the 
lower  ground,  in  the  valleys.  Their  two  usual  forms  of 
occurrence  are  "  eskers  "  and  "  sand  plains." 

Eskers  are  winding  ridges  of  gravel  built  by  streams  that 
ran  on  the  ground  in  tunnels  under  the  ice,  or  in  canons 
between  ice  walls.  Under  certain  conditions  of  velocity  and 
supply  of  gravel  such  a  stream  would  upraise  its  bed,  lay- 
ing down  gravel  along  its  course  ;  and  when  the  ice  melted 
away,  and  the  supporting  walls  of  the  tunnel  vanished,  the 
gravels  on  either  side  of  the  old  stream  bed  would  slide 
down,  giving  it  the  form  of  a  steep-sided  ridge.  Eskers 
occur  along  the  valley  of  Stony  Brook  above  and  below 
Beaver  Pond.  There  are  others  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
town,  running  from  Sandy  Pond  road  southwest  across 
Goose  Pond  to  Lake  Walden,  and  thence  southwards. 
Another  esker  runs  near  the  railroad  south  of  Lincoln 
station.  They  are  curiously  shaped  ridges,  and  often  passed 
as  Indian  mounds  in  the  early  days  before  the  glacial  period 
was  thought  of.  "  Serpent  ridges  "  they  are  sometimes  called, 
on  account  of  their  winding  courses. 

Sand  plains  are  delta-like  deposits  built  by  streams,  which 
issued  from  the  ice  into  a  body  of  standing  water  at  the  ice 
front.  Their  flat  top  is  the  most  striking  element  of  form. 
Instead  of  being  fan-shaped,  like  ordinary  deltas,  they  are 
usually  semi-elliptical  in  outline.  Instead  of  reaching  back 
to  higher  ground,  in  the  way  that  ordinary  deltas  extend 
back  to  the  shore  of  the  lake  in  which  they  were  built,  sand 

124 


APPENDIX 

deltas  are  usually  bounded  by  an  abrupt  slope  —  an  "  ice- 
contact  slope  "  —  because  the  delta  was  built  forward  from 
against  the  ice,  and  the  ice  subsequently  melted  back  and 
caused  the  edge  of  the  delta  to  slump  down.  From  this 
back-slope  the  flat  top  of  a  plain  slopes  gently  forward  to 
the  front  border,  which  is  often  lobate  in  form,  like  an 
ordinary  delta.  One  sand  delta  occurs  near  Massachusetts 
Avenue  just  south  of  Wellhead  Pond.  It  has  a  good  steep 
ice-contact  slope  on  the  northern  side,  marking  the  posi- 
tion of  the  front  of  the  retreating  ice  at  the  time  it  was 
built. 

The  best  plains,  however,  lie  in  the  southwestern  part  of 
the  township,  west  of  the  station.  Two  very  fine  plains  in 
this  area  —  partly  in  Wayland  —  are  important  members 
of  an  extensive  series  of  deltas  built  in  an  extinct  glacial 
lake  that  occupied  the  greater  part  of  the  basin  of  the  Sud- 
bury River  while  the  ice  sheet  was  retreating  north,  with  its 
east-west  front  damming  the  northward  flowing  drainage. 
The  gravel  deposits  near  Lake  Walden,  and  the  plain  cut 
by  the  railroad  near  Baker  Bridge  come  into  the  same  group 
of  lake  deposits.  The  most  interesting  feature  of  these  del- 
tas is  the  fact  that  though  all  of  them  between  Wayland 
village  and  Lake  Walden  were  probably  formed  in  a  single 
lake  —  glacial  Lake  Sudbury  —  at  a  time  when  its  level  was 
constant  and  controlled  by  the  level  of  an  outlet  that  passed 
down  Cherry  Brook,  the  deltas  do  not  occur  at  the  same 
altitude  ;  they  measure  separately  all  the  way  from  1 60  feet 
above  sea  level  at  Wayland  to  195  feet  at  Walden.  When 
it  is  seen,  moreover,  that  the  increase  in  height  of  deltas  going 
north  is  exactly  proportionate  to  their  distance  apart,  it  looks 
very  much  as  if  the  whole  region  had  been  tilted  up  on  the 
north  since  the  ice  sheet  left  it,  so  as  to  make  the  extinct 
water-plane  slant  southward  at  the  rate  of  about  six  feet  a 
mile.    Such  a  movement  of  the  region  is  not  at  all  improbable, 

125 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

as  it  is  known  to  have  occurred  elsewhere  in  the  glaciated 
area,  as  near  as  western  New  York,  and  has  been  suspected 
in  New  England  because  of  certain  "  raised  beaches  "  along 
the  coast,  at  Cape  Ann  and  Mount  Desert.  In  Scandinavia, 
too,  the  land  has  risen  since  an  ice  sheet  melted  off  from  it. 
Probably  the  removal  of  the  weight  of  a  thick  ice  sheet  is 
itself  sufficient  to  account  for  earth  movements  of  this  sort. 

One  of  the  outlets  of  glacial  Lake  Sudbury  in  the  later 
stages  of  its  short  life  seems  to  have  been  across  the  divide 
near  Wellhead,  and  south  down  Hobbs*  Brook.  Evidence  of 
this  is  found  in  a  small  area  of  smooth  bar«  rock,  rounded  as 
if  waterworn  by  a  torrential  stream,  which  occurs  by  the  side 
of  the  reservoir  near  Weston  Street  and  just  south  of  Con- 
cord Avenue.  It  looks  very  much  as  if  a  strong  river  had 
once  swept  over  the  ledges  at  this  point,  rounding  their  edges 
in  a  way  that  Hobbs'  Brook  with  its  present  volume  could 
never  have  done.  Down  Hobbs'  Brook  below  the  reservoir, 
also,  there  is  a  stretch  of  extremely  bouldery  ground  which 
suggests  that  the  old  river  swept  over  the  till  deposit  at 
this  point,  carried  with  it  all  the  clay,  pebbles,  and  cobble- 
stones, and  left  only  the  pavement  of  boulders. 

In  the  ten  thousand  years  or  so  since  the  ice  age,  remark- 
ably little  change  seems  to  have  been  brought  about  in  the 
form  of  the  glacial  deposits.  The  complete  foresting  of  the 
country,  followed  by  the  de-foresting  and  settlement  of  it 
within  historic  times,  has  certainly  produced  a  very  different 
looking  region  from  that  which  the  ice  sheet  left;  but  during 
all  this  the  rains  and  streams  seem  hardly  to  have  touched  the 
deltas,  or  to  have  gullied  the  till  on  the  hillsides.  Very  little 
soil  has  accumulated  on  the  sand  plains,  too ;  and  probably 
because  of  the  ease  with  which  decaying  vegetable  growth 
can  be  carried  down  in  solution  through  porous  sands. 


126 


APPENDIX 
APPENDIX   B 

(Page  32) 

As  stated  in  the  text,  the  first  contemporaneous  map,  or 
plan,  of  Lincoln  was  that  prepared  by  a  committee  appointed 
by  a  vote  of  the  town  in  accordance  with  a  Resolve  of  the 
General  Court  passed  in  1794.  Of  this  committee  Samuel 
Hoar  was  chairman,  and  the  plan  prepared  by  him  was  re- 
produced in  the  published  "  Proceedings  in  Observance  of  the 
One  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the  Organization 
of  the  First  Church"  (p.  100).  A  mere  outline  sketch, 
it  is  familiar,  and  its  reproduction  is  unnecessary.  Upon  it 
the  bounds,  the  public  ways  in  existence  in  1794,  and  the 
principal  watercourses,  are  indicated.  The  earliest  known 
general  map  of  the  region  about  Boston,  in  any  degree  con- 
temporaneous or  at  all  authentic  in  detail,  is  that  entitled 
"  The  Seat  of  War  in  New  England  by  an  American  Vol- 
unteer," published  in  London  between  February,  1775,  and 
April,  1777.  This  map  also  is  referred  to  in  the  text  (p.  32) 
and  was  reproduced,  in  somewhat  reduced  facsimile,  in  1902, 
by  Dr.  S.  A.  Green  in  his  "  Ten  Facsimile  Reproductions 
Relating  to  New  England"  (p.  43).  On  this  map  Lincoln 
does  not  appear  ;  though  Concord,  Weston,  Lexington  and 
Bedford  are  all  indicated,  and  the  roads  through  Lincoln  are 
laid  down.  There  is  no  authentic  contemporaneous  map  of 
Concord  prior  to  the  incorporation  of  Lincoln.  Such  a  map 
was,  however,  prepared  by  William  Wheeler,  in  1884,  from 
data  contained  in  the  records,  and  published  in  Charles  H. 
Walcott's  "  Concord  in  the  Colonial  Period."  On  it  are 
indicated,  also,  the  boundary  lines  of  Lincoln  when  incor- 
porated, as  affecting  the  territories  of  Concord,  Lexington 
and  Weston,  showing  the  actual  and  proportional  area  taken 

127 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

from  each  town ;  also  the  roads  laid  out  prior  to  incorpora- 
tion. This  map,  necessarily  in  some  degree  conjectural,  is 
of  great  interest  in  connection  with  Lincoln,  and  is  here 
reproduced. 

To  trace  the  origin  of  each  road,  and  the  changes  subse- 
quently made  in  it,  is  difficult  in  the  case  of  any  Massachu- 
setts town  at  all  old.  Lincoln  is  no  exception  to  the  rule. 
It  can  generally  be  done ;  but  doing  it  involves  infinite  pa- 
tience, and  almost  endless  labor.  A  careful  study  of  both 
county  and  town  records  must  be  made,  including  orders 
of  Court,  the  conveyances  of  real  estate,  and  the  wills  on 
file  in  the  probate  offices.  Not  only  are  the  entries  in  the 
town-books  both  obscure  and  deceptive,  but  the  metes  and 
bounds  given  were  generally  of  a  very  perishable  nature,  — 
a  white  oak  tree,  a  pile  of  stones  or  even  fence  rails,  the 
corner  of  a  barn,  or  the  holding  of  some  person  whose  name 
has  died  out. 

As  stated  in  the  text  (p.  32),  Boston  being  both  the  point 
from  which  development  worked  its  way  out,  and  the  prin- 
cipal objective  of  trade  and  travel,  all  the  original  roads  and 
ways  naturally  formed  themselves  on  the  most  convenient 
lines,  usually  those  of  least  resistance,  in  connection  with 
the  main  thoroughfares  from  and  to  Boston.  Prior  to  the 
incorporation  of  Lincoln  the  only  wagon  way  to  Boston 
was  by  the  old  Worcester  road,  which  was  reached  from 
Concord  by  way  of  Sudbury  or  Watertown.  The  Bay  Road, 
as  it  was  called,  through  the  north  part  of  Lincoln  and 
Lexington,  went  to  Charlestown.  The  line  of  the  Bay  Road 
was  substantially  that  of  the  historic  Lexington-Concord 
route,  modified,  straightened,  and,  in  places,  relocated  to 
meet  growing  requirements.  The  origin  and  development 
of  the  southern  road  were  more  complicated.  Formerly 
known  as  the  Sudbury  Way,  this  road,  for  one  going  from 
Boston  to  Concord,  left  the  Worcester  artery  at  what  is 

128 


APPENDIX 

now  Wayland  Centre,  but,  originally,  Sudbury  meeting- 
house ;  for,  incorporated  as  Sudbury  in  1637,  ^"^  becom- 
ing East  Sudbury  in  1780,  that  locality  was  set  off  and 
christened  Wayland  as  recently  as  1835.  The  way  then 
ran  almost  due  north,  through  the  woods,  to  Concord.  On 
it  still  stands  the  seventeenth  century  Farrar  house. 

A  highway  from  Watertown  to  Concord  was  laid  out, 
we  are  told,'  in  1638.  This  road,  running  in  a  west  by 
north  direction,  —  the  present  Waltham  North  Avenue,  — 
joined  the  Sudbury  Way,  immediately  north  of  the  Farrar 
homestead,  and,  turning  north  and  then  again  west,  crossed 
the  brook.  Thence,  Walcott  says,  "  the  most  ancient  road," 
long  since  wholly  discontinued,  turned  sharply  after  passing 
the  old  eighteenth  century  Baker  homestead,  crossed  the 
deep  ravine  between  Walden  and  Fairhaven-bay,  south  of 
the  Fitchburg  railroad  filling,  and  thence  found  its  way  to 
Concord,  emerging  from  the  woods  at  the  settlement  now 
known  as  Hubbardsville.  The  present  direct  line  of  road 
from  Concord  to  Waltham,  skirting  the  north  bank  of 
Walden  and  paralleling  the  Fitchburg  railroad  from  Baker's 
Bridge  through  the  Codman  place,  was  not  laid  out  until  a 
much  later  period.  Indeed,  the  separation  of  Lincoln  from 
Concord,  and  its  incorporation  as  an  independent  town, 
was  to  no  small  extent  due,  as  related  in  the  text,  to  a 
controversy  between  Chambers  Russell  and  the  inhabitants 
of  the  mother  town  over  the  laying  out  through  his  place  of 
this  more  direct  route  to  Waltham  and  Boston.  Since  1754 
it  has  constituted  the  southern  artery  of  the  town ;  the  sec- 
tion of  road  from  Baker's  Bridge  to  the  brook  having  been 
laid  out  when  the  road  at  that  point  was  relocated  in  1843, 
at  the  time  the  Fitchburg  railroad  was  under  construction. 

The  old  Waltham  road  was  continued  across  the  Sud- 
bury Way  to  Lee's  Bridge  and  Nine-acre  Corner  in  1760, 

*  Walcott's  Concord  in  Colonial  DaySf  p.  80. 
129 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

after  the  incorporation  of  the  town,  and  subsequent  to 
the  laying  out  of  the  more  direct  Waltham  road,  north 
of  Walden.  Later,  in  the  turnpike  and  stage-coach  period, 
between  1790  and  1845,  the  southern,  or  lower  artery,  was 
known  in  Lincoln  as  the  Lancaster  stage-road,  while  the 
corresponding  east  and  west  route  through  the  north  of  the 
township — avoiding  the  intermediate  high  ground  on  which 
the  village  of  Lincoln  stands  —  became  known  as  the  Keene 
stage-road.  These  two  were  the  original  travelled  ways  of 
Lincoln,  —  its  spinal  columns ;  and,  so  far  as  the  plans  and 
maps  show,  they  were  the  only  county  roads,  so-called,  in 
the  Lincoln  territory  until  long  after  the  incorporation  of  the 
town.  As  in  Concord,  there  were  numerous  drift- ways, 
farm-ways,  and  private  ways  for  the  accommodation  of 
owners  of  land  ;  and  these  from  time  to  time  were  by  town- 
meeting  action  made  public  ways.  Afterwards,  as  already 
said,  they  were  frequently  discontinued  and  vacated.  In 
the  Samuel  Hoar  plan  of  1794  only  the  county  roads  are 
indicated  ;  but  a  large  number  of  these  subordinate  and 
intersecting  town  ways  had  already  been  voted.  The  road 
from  Lincoln  Centre  to  Walden  Pond,  and  so  to  Concord, 
seems  to  have  been  laid  out  at  an  early  day ;  that  from 
Flint's,  or  Sandy,  Pond  to  Concord,  direct,  though  indicated 
on  Walcott's  "  colonial  period  "  map,  was  not  formally 
laid  out  until  about  1810.  It  probably  existed  prior  to  that 
time  as  a  travelled  wood  way.  What  is  now  the  great  inter- 
secting artery  of  the  town,  the  road  from  Lincoln  village 
to  the  railroad  station,  and  thence  to  the  intersection  of  the 
old  Watertown  road,  was,  until  after  1850,  a  mere  country 
cross-road,  comparatively  little  used.  It  was  straightened 
out  and  rebuilt  in  1894.  Prior  to  that  time  it  connected 
with  the  Tower  Road  to  Weston  over  what  had  been  the 
dam  of  a  water  power,  on  the  brook  from  Sandy  to  Beaver 
Pond.    In  the   early   days    South  Lincoln    was    familiarly 

130 


APPENDIX 

known  as  Watertowne  Corner,  and  was  largely  held  under 
two  grants,  the  Bulkeley,  now  Codman,  of  750  acres,  and 
the  Stow,  now  Farrar,  of  666  acres.  Flint's  farm,  750 
acres,  lay  east  of  Sandy  Pond,  on  Lincoln  hill. 

Many  of  the  most  ancient  ways  have  lapsed,  and  long 
since  reverted  to  private  ownership.  They  can  now  only 
with  difficulty  be  traced.  This,  for  instance,  has  been 
the  case  with  the  original  Watertown  connection  with  the 
Concord-Lexington  road,  on  the  north  side  of  Lincoln  hill ; 
also  with  the  Concord- Waltham  road,  south  of  Lake  Wal- 
den.  The  names  of  localities,  as  well  as  roads  and  ways, 
have  also  lapsed,  or  passed  out  of  use ;  while  others  have 
been  substituted  for  them.  Some  remain,  but  have  to  a 
large  extent  lost  their  significance.  For  instance,  in  the 
cases  already  cited,  the  Bay  Road  and  the  Sudbury  Way. 
The  Tower  Road  and  the  Trapelo  Road  are  examples  of 
ways  still  called  after  families  once  living  on  them,  long 
since  gone.  But,  in  brief,  the  three  controlling  influences 
in  the  case  of  Lincoln  road  development  were  (i)  access  to 
the  meeting-house ;  (2)  access  to  Boston,  as  described  in 
the  text ;  and  (3)  access  to  the  railroad  station.  The  meet- 
ing-house influence  made  itself  felt  between  1747  and  1760  ; 
the  changes  incident  to  the  more  direct  route  opened  to 
Boston  by  the  building  of  the  Cambridge  bridges  were  grad- 
ually worked  out  between  1790  and  1820  ;  and,  finally,  the 
changes  which  followed  the  opening  of  the  railroad,  begun 
in  1843,  were  not  completed  until  1894. 

It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  from  the  beginning  a 
different  usage  has  not  prevailed.  Metes,  bounds  and  in- 
dications should  have  been  more  monumental  in  character ; 
and  every  edifice  erected,  public  or  private,  should  have  its 
date  of  origin  upon  it.  It  is  merely  a  matter  of  usage,  in- 
volving little  trouble  and  small  additional  expense.  The  old 
provincial  milestones,  referred  to  in  the  text,  with  initials, 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

dates  and  distances  cut  upon  them,  have  now  great  anti- 
quarian interest ;  they  are  carefully  preserved.  It  would  be 
the  same  with  edifices,  had  the  custom  of  marking  them 
prevailed.  In  a  town  which  had  a  true  appreciation  of  its 
history  and  traditions,  every  finger-board  would  serve  as  a 
record.  No  stone  post  would  be  planted  as  a  mete  or  bound 
which  did  not  bear  an  indication  of  its  purpose,  together 
with  the  date  of  its  planting. 


APPENDIX   C 

(Page  43) 

Adams,  Brooks,  Smith 

Mr.  Lawrence  spells  his  young  wife's  maiden  name 
with  a  double  "  d."  That  marriage,  more  than  a  century 
and  a  half  ago,  caused  me  for  obvious  reasons  to  feel  a 
family  interest  in  the  Rev.  William  Lawrence.  Love  Adams 
was,  it  seems,  a  daughter  of  one  John  Adams,  a  name  — 
spelled  always  with  a  single  "  d  "  —  which  frequently  ap- 
pears in  the  Concord  and  Lincoln  records.  The  marriage 
of  William  Lawrence  to  Love  Adams,  the  daughter  of  the 
Concord  John  Adams,  took  place  on  the  7th  of  January, 
1750.  Nearly  fifteen  years  later,  on  the  25th  of  October, 
1764,  another  John  Adams,  living  in  Braintree,  was  mar- 
ried at  Weymouth  to  Abigail  Smith,  the  daughter  of  William 
Smith,  pastor  of  the  church  in  that  town.  I  chance  to  be 
one  of  the  offspring  of  that  union  ;  and  the  John  Adams  then 
married  was  a  descendant  in  the  fourth  generation  of  a  cer- 
tain Henry  Adams  who  came,  it  is  said,  from  Devonshire, 
England,  in  1633,  with  his  eight  sons,  scattering  a  numer- 
ous progeny  over  the  entire  land.  In  his  Church  Manual 
of  1872  (p.  57)  the  Rev.  Henry  Jackson  Richardson,  the 

132 


APPENDIX 

fifth  successor  of  William  Lawrence  (1860-92),  states  that 
the  Concord  John  Adams  was  a  great-grandson  of  that  same 
Henry  Adams,  and,  accordingly,  a  cousin,  though  far  re- 
moved, of  the  John  of  Braintree.  A  similar  statement  as  to 
the  descent  of  John,  of  Concord,  from  the  Braintree  Henry, 
is  made  by  Robert  M.  Lawrence,  M.  D.,  in  his  volume 
(p.  73),  published  in  1888,  entitled  "  Historical  Sketches 
of  Some  Members  of  the  Lawrence  Family."  Both  Mr. 
Richardson  and  Dr.  Lawrence  seem  to  have  accepted,  and, 
without  independent  investigation,  followed  Shattuck,  in  his 
"  History  of  Concord,  and  Thayer,  in  his  "  Memorial  of  the 
Thayer  and  Adams  Families,"  with  whom  the  statement  ap- 
parently originated.  To  the  same  effect  in  the  Genealogy  of 
the  Minot  family  ^  it  is  stated  that  "  Captain  Daniel  Adams 
lived  in  the  south  part  of  Lincoln,  then  within  the  limits  of 
Concord,  on  the  road  from  Waltham  to  Stow.  He  was  the  son 
of  Joseph,  and  grandson  of  John  Adams,  one  of  the  eight 
sons  of  Henry  of  Quincy."  His  brother  John  lived  near  the 
centre  of  Lincoln,  married  Love  Minot,  and  their  daughter 
Lucy  married  Rev.  William  Lawrence,  of  Lincoln.  These 
are  very  direct  statements ;  but  James  Savage,  after  the  manner 
of  genealogists,  quite  discredits  them.  He  characteristically 
remarks  *  that  John,  of  Cambridge,  was  son  of  Henry,  the 
first,  "  as  amiable  credulity  would  assume,  is  highly  improba- 
ble, since  he  came  [to  Massachusetts]  twenty  years,  or  a  little 
less,  after  that  great  progenitor,  and  so  long  outlived  him." 
This  John,  of  Cambridge,  was  the  progenitor  of  Mistress 
Love  [Adams]  Lawrence.  But  the  doubt  thus  thrown  on 
the  Henry  Adams  descent  is  less  conclusive  than  Savage 
supposed.  Henry  Adams,  of  Braintree,  certainly  had  a  son, 
John,  born  in  England  about  1624.  That  son  survived  his 
father,  who  died  in  1644.    Tradition  has  it,  a  son  returned 

*  Neiv  England  Genealogical  and  Antiquarian  Register ^  iS^y,  p.  1 76. 

*  Genealogical  Dictionary y  vol.  i,  p.  II. 


THE   TOWN    OF    LINCOLN 

to  England  with  his  mother  and  sister,  named  Ursula.  The 
mother  there  died ;  not  impossibly  the  son  may  have  come 
back  to  New  England,  settling  in  Cambridge,  where  he  died 
in  1706,  "at  an  advanced  age,"  about  eighty-five,  thus 
outliving  Henry  Adams  no  less  than  sixty  years.  In  age 
John  of  Cambridge  thus  corresponds  with  John,  the  son  of 
Henry.  The  identity  cannot  be  established  positively ;  but 
the  weight  of  evidence  is  in  its  favor.  The  Rev.  Andrew 
N.  Adams  is  non-committal  on  this  point.  In  his  elaborate 
"  Adams  History  "  (p.  958)  he  says  :  "  Considering  the  con- 
flict, or  contrariety  of  opinion,  and  the  doubt  which  naturally 
attaches  to  absence  of  direct  evidence,  the  writer  has  decided 
to  give  what  he  has  been  able  to  gather  of  the  record  and 
history  of '  John  of  Cambridge,'  .  .  .  leaving  it  to  every 
reader  to  form  his  own  belief  as  to  the  identity  of  John  of 
Cambridge  with  the  son  of  Henry  of  Braintree."  Adams  is 
one  of  the  more  common  Anglo-Saxon  names.  There  were 
certainly  two,  and  not  improbably  several,  bearing  the  name 
in  Cambridge,  Watertown,  and  Concord  in  colonial  times ; 
and,  while  connection  may  in  some  cases  have  existed,  and 
the  probabilities  may  even  favor  such  a  connection,  it  cannot 
be  positively  asserted.  There  was  a  George  of  Watertown, 
a  John  of  Cambridge,  and  a  Robert  of  Newbury,  as  well  as 
a  Henry  of  Braintree.  They,  as  well  as  others  of  the  name, 
all  came  to  New  England  between  1630  and  1655. 

In  the  matter  of  connection  with  the  Lincoln  stock,  I 
was  more  fortunate  on  the  distaff  side.  My  mother,  Abigail 
Brown  Brooks,  was  the  eleventh,  and  youngest,  child  of 
Peter  Chardon  Brooks,  of  Medford.  Mr.  Brooks  (1767- 
1849)  was  a  descendant  in  the  fourth  generation  of  Caleb 
Brooks,  the  son  of  Thomas  Brooks,  who  came  over  in,  or 
before,  1631,  and  settled  first  in  Watertown  and  then  in 
Concord.  Joshua,  another  son  of  Thomas  Brooks,  estab- 
lished  himself  in   Concord,  and  from  him,  in  the  fourth 


APPENDIX 

generation,  was  descended  the  General  Eleazer  Brooks,  of 
revolutionary  fame  (i 727-1 806).  On  the  mother's  side, 
consequently,  I  am  the  cousin,  seven  times  removed,  of  the 
descendants  of  General  Eleazer  Brooks,  now  living  in  Lin- 
coln. 

Furthermore,  Mr.  Wheeler  in  his  sketch  of  Lincoln  in 
Kurd's  "  History  of  Middlesex  County  "  (vol.  ii,  p.  624)  says 
that  "  Captain  William  Smith,  son  of  the  Rev.  William 
Smith  of  Weymouth,  commanded  a  company  in  Colonel 
Nixon's  regiment  at  Cambridge  in  1775,  and  in  Colonel 
Brooks's  regiment  in  1776."  I  have  always  understood  also 
that  William  Smith  commanded  the  company  of  Lincoln 
Minute-men.  The  Rev.  William  Smith  of  Weymouth  was 
of  Charlestown  descent ;  but  in  some  way  he  became  the 
possessor  of  a  farm  in  Lincoln.  He  had  a  son,  William, 
and  several  daughters,  among  them  Abigail,  who  became 
Mrs.  John  Adams.  Presumably,  the  son  settled  on  his 
father's  Lincoln  farm;  and,  if  so,  he  was,  in  1775,  a  man 
of  twenty-nine.  Of  him  little  is  recorded.  The  name  is  so 
common  that  I  do  not  feel  assured  the  Captain  William 
Smith  of  Lincoln  was  the  brother  of  Abigail  Adams.  Such, 
however,  is  unquestionably  the  Lincoln  tradition. 


APPENDIX    D 

(Page  43) 
CoDMAN  Place 

This  estate,  and  the  colonial  mansion  upon  it,  would 
afford  in  itself,  and  in  connection  with  the  Russell  family, 
ample  material  for  a  monograph,  both  characteristic  and 
interesting.  It  is  the  story  of  a  family  of  the  provincial 
days,  the  owners  of  a  considerable  landed  property  in  a  Mas- 

135 


THE   TOWN    OF    LINCOLN 

sachusetts  country  town,  and  the  occupants  for  generations 
of  a  typical  colonial  house.  In  that  house  were  collected 
much  furniture,  and  many  objects  of  art.  Distinctly  belong- 
ing to  the  gentry  of  the  provincial  period,  this  family  bore 
its  full  share  in  the  vicissitudes  of  the  revolutionary  period, 
going  into  exile  and  suffering  forfeiture  of  property.  Its 
records,  and  the  letters  exchanged  between  its  members, 
would  afford  an  interesting  contribution  to  eighteenth  cen- 
tury history.  Such  a  sketch,  however,  including  as  it  should, 
to  be  at  all  complete,  numerous  maps,  plans,  illustrations 
and  copies  of  family  pictures,  could  not  properly  be  made 
part  of  a  town  commemoration.  It  should  be  prepared  in- 
dependently; and  the  present  Ogden  Codman  has  accu- 
mulated all  the  material  necessary  to  a  work  of  great 
interest  individually,  as  well  as  in  connection  with  the  town 
of  Lincoln. 

Chambers  Russell  was  the  son  of  Daniel  Russell,  and 
was  born  July  4,  17 13.  He  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in 
the  class  of  1731.  Subsequently  he  studied  law  with  John 
Reed,  a  prominent  member  of  the  provincial  bar  of  that 
period,  and  shortly  after  being  admitted  to  the  bar  he  be- 
came engaged  in  public  business.  April  2,  1738,  he  married 
Mary,  daughter  of  Francis  Wheelwright,  merchant,  she 
being  also  a  granddaughter  of  Gov.  Dudley.  His  wife  died 
in  1762,  in  the  forty-fifth  year  of  her  age.  They  had  no 
children.  The  death  of  his  wife  was  a  severe  blow  to  him  ; 
and,  being  out  of  health,  he  was  advised  to  cross  the  At- 
lantic. He  sailed  for  London  in  October,  1766;  and  died 
in  England,  November  24  of  the  same  year,  having  barely 
survived  the  passage.*    The  following  quaint  notice  of  him 

*  According  to  Lincoln  records,  which  the  authorities  (Shattuck,  p.  317)  have  all 
followed,  Chambers  Russell  died  at  Guildford,  Surrey,  England,  November  24, 
1767.  This  is  obviously  an  error,  inasmuch  as  mention  of  his  death  "  on  the  24th 
day  of  November  last,  in  the  54th  year  of  his  age  "  is  found  in  the  Massachusetts 
Gazette  of  January  15,  1767,  and  in  the  Boston  Post  Boy  and  Advertiser  of  four 

136 


The  Foster  House 

Residence  of  Moorjield  Storey,  Esq. 

(p.  224) 


APPENDIX 

subsequently  appeared  in  the  Massachusetts  "  Gazette  "  of 
January  15,  1767:  — 

"  By  Capt.  Dixey  from  London  we  have  received  the 
melancholy  news  of  the  death  of  the  late  Hon.  Chambers 
Russell,  Esq.,  who,  after  a  short  illness  of  three  days,  de- 
parted this  life  in  Guildford  in  Surrey,  on  the  24th  day  of 
November  last  in  the  54th  year  of  his  age. 

"  A  gentleman  who's  truly  upright  and  amiable  character, 
in  public  and  private  life,  had  justly  endeared  him  to  all  who 
had  any  knowledge  of  him,  but  more  especially  to  those  who 
were  favored  with  his  particular  friendship  and  intimacy.  In 
the  year  1 746  he  received,  unexpected  and  unsolicited.  His 
Majesty's  commission,  appointing  him  Judge  of  the  Court 
of  Vice  Admiralty  for  the  Provinces  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  and  New  Hampshire,  and  the  Colony  of  Rhode  Island, 
which  he  held  until  a  few  years  ago,  when,  Rhode  Island 
being  made  a  separate  District,  he  was  commissioned  for  the 
two  provinces  only,  in  which  station  he  continued  until  his 
decease.  He  was  for  several  years  one  of  the  Justices  of  the 
Inferior  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  for  the  County  of  Mid- 
dlesex, and  in  the  year  1752  he  was  removed  from  that 
Bench,  and  appointed  one  of  the  Justices  of  the  Superior 
Court  of  Judicature  of  this  Province,  which  important  office 
he  sustained  till  his  death.  In  the  space  of  about  26  years 
he  was  almost  uninterruptedly  chosen  by  the  towns  of 
Charlestown,  Concord  or  Lincoln  to  represent  them  at  the 
General  Court,  and  in  the  years  1756  and  1760,  he  was 
elected  one  of  the  members  of  His  Majesty's  Honorable 
Council,  after  which  he  voluntarily  resigned  his  seat  at  the 
Board,  and  was  again  chosen  Representative  of  the  town  of 

days  later,  January  19,  As  he  was  born  July  4,  1 7*  3,  he  was  fifty-three  on  July  4, 
1766,  and  in  the  following  November  he  was  "  in  the  54th  year  of  his  age."  Had 
he  died,  as  recorded  in  the  Lincoln  town-books,' November  24,  1767,  he  would 
have  died  in  his  fifty-fifth  year. 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

Lincoln.  In  these  several  stations  he  discharged  the  trust 
reposed  in  him  with  great  ability  and  the  most  unsullied  in- 
tegrity, —  ever  maintaining  a  sacred  regard  for  the  laws  and 
constitution  of  his  country  and  the  rights  and  liberties  of  his 
fellow  subjects,  avoiding  with  scrupulous  conscientiousness 
whatever  might  have  a  possible  tendency  to  warp  or  bias  his 
judgment,  and  always  giving  the  surest  evidence  of  his  un- 
alterable intention  and  endeavor  to  make  the  Rule  of  Right 
the  governing  principle  of  all  his  actions. 

"  In  private  life  his  character  shone  with  distinguished 
luster.  He  exhibited  an  example  of  the  most  tender  con- 
jugal affection,  during  a  course  of  many  years,  in  which  he 
was  happy  in  a  most  agreeable,  sensible  and  virtuous  con- 
sort. 

"  He  was  an  uncommonly  kind  and  indulgent  Master,  ever 
considering  and  treating  his  slaves  as  entitled  to  the  rights 
of  humanity,  and  making  them  in  all  respects  as  happy  as 
was  consistent  with  their  state.  As  a  proof  of  his  just  and 
humane  sentiments  in  this  respect,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
mention  that  in  his  last  will  he  has  made  special  provision 
that  none  of  his  slaves  shall  be  sold,  but  in  case  any  of 
them  through  age  or  other  bodily  infirmity  become  useless, 
they  shall  be  comfortably  supported  out  of  his  estate  during 
their  natural  lives. 

"  All  the  inhabitants  of  the  county  and  towns  in  which 
he  resided  are  witnesses  of  his  numerous  acts  of  generosity 
and  beneficence,  both  of  a  public  and  private  nature,  and 
it  may  be  said  of  him  in  ah  eminent  sense  that  '  he  deliv- 
ered the  poor  that  cried  and  the  fatherless  and  him  that  had 
none  to  help  him.*  The  blessings  of  him  that  was  ready 
to  perish  came  upon  him  —  he  was  eyes  to  the  blind,  feet 
to  the  lame,  and  a  father  to  the  poor. 

"  His  hospitality  was  such  that  friends  and  strangers  who 
visited  him,  were  received  and  entertained  with  a  cheerful 

138 


APPENDIX 

open  liberality  which  denoted  a  real  sense  of  obligation  on 
his  part.  In  his  friendships  he  was  warm  and  sincere,  and 
such  were  the  favorable  allowances  which  his  candor  made 
for  the  frailties  of  humanity  that  even  an  injury  never  pre- 
vented his  bounty  and  kind  offices  to  the  author  of  it. 

"  To  conclude  the  outline  of  this  truly  worthy  character, 
it  may  with  justice  be  said  that  in  the  death  of  Judge 
Russell  his  country  has  lost  a  disinterested  patriot,  his  in- 
timates an  amiable  companion,  and  mankind  a  sure  and 
hearty  friend. 

The  man  who  by  his  steady  course 

Has  happiness  insured, 
When  earth's  foundations  shake,  shall  stand 

By  Providence  secured." 

In  a  foot-note  to  Quincy's  "  Reports,"  pp.  232,  233,  is 
the  following  reference  to  his  associate.  Judge  Russell,  made 
by  Chief  Justice  Thomas  Hutchinson  in  course  of  his  charge 
to  the  Grand  Jury  at  the  March  Term  of  the  Superior 
Court  of  Judicature  VII  George  III  (1767):  — 

"  Before  I  say  Anything  to  the  Grand  Jury,  it  is  highly 
proper  that  I  should  take  Notice  of  the  Death  of  One  of 
the  Judges  of  this  Court.  I  have  no  Talent  for  it,  and  am 
an  Enemy  to  traducing  and  vilifying  the  Characters  of  Men, 
when  alive,  and  of  flattering  them  when  dead.  Yet  Justice 
to  Judge  Russell  obliges  me  to  say  Something  of  his  Death. 
Every  one  who  knew  him  in  private  Life,  must  acknowledge 
him  a  most  amiable  Man.  I  scarce  ever  knew  his  Equal. 
He  might  be  truly  characterized  as  a  Lover  of  Mankind, 
and  no  higher  Character  can,  I  think,  be  given  of  any  One. 
Nothing  more  need  be  said  to  recommend  him,  especially  at 
this  Time. 

"  The  several  Posts  of  Honour  which  he  bore,  he  sus- 
tained with  Dignity.  As  a  Legislator,  I  had  an  Oppor- 
tunity to  observe  his  Conduct,  both  as  a  Member  of  the 

139 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

Council  and  House  of  Representatives.  And  I  know  that 
he  ever  engaged  on  that  Side  vv^hich  had  Truth  and  Justice 
for  its  Support.  As  a  Judge  of  the  Admiralty,  his  Conduct 
was  most  unexceptionable.  And  I  believe  none  of  his  De- 
crees, but  met  with  universal  Approbation,  except  at  Times, 
when  Party-spirit  and  Animosities  ran  high,  and  made  it 
a  Thing  impossible,  for  any  Judge,  in  any  Department,  to 
give  Satisfaction.  His  Conduct  in  this  Court  —  I  appeal  to 
the  Gentlemen  of  the  Bar  —  was  such  as  pronounced  him 
the  Judge,  and  a  Man  of  strict  Integrity.  Although  we  all 
have  some  Byass,  —  *t  is  impossible  for  human  Nature  to 
be  without,  —  yet  if  he  had  any  Byass,  it  was  ever  in  Favour 
of  Virtue. 

"  Justice  has  been  done  this  worthy  Character,  already, 
in  publick,  in  an  unexceptionable  and  elegant  Manner.^ 
The  best  Use  that  we  can  make,  is  to  follow  his  Path  and 
imitate  his  Virtues  ;  especially,  as  we  all  must  shortly  follow 
him  to  give  our  Account  to  the  Judge  of  us  all.'* 

Brief  biographical  sketches  of  Chambers  Russell,  or  re- 
ferences to  him,  are  to  be  found  in  Shattuck's  "  Concord  "  (p. 
317),  in  Richardson's  "  Church  Manual "  (p.  92),  in  Hurd's 
"  History  of  Middlesex  County  "  (vol.  ii,  p.  636),  and  in 
the  "  Proceedings  of  the  One  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Church 
Anniversary  "  (p.  63).  A  print  from  the  portrait  by  Copley 
is  also  included  in  the  "  Proceedings."  Allusions  and  re- 
ferences to  him  are  contained  in  John  Adams's  "  Works," 
vol.  ii,  p.  333,  and  iv,  pp.  5,  72,  73.  Also  in  Quincy's 
"  Reports,"  p.  427. 

The  Chambers  Russell  estate,  now  the  property  of  his 
collateral  descendant,  is  believed  to  be  a  part  of  the  original 
Bulkeley  grants,  made  at  the  time  of  the  settlement  of 
Concord.  Of  these  grants  there  seem  to  have  been  two,  one 
of  three  hundred  acres  "  towards  Cambridge,"  and  one  to 

*  Referring  to  the  foregoing  notice  in  the  Massachusetts  Gazette. 
140 


APPENDIX 

Grace  Bulkeley  of  seven  hundred  and  fifty  acres.  The  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  acre  grant  is  thought  to  have  included 
what  is  now  known  as  the  Codman  place.  It  lay  between 
Sandy  Pond,  Lake  Walden  and  Fairhaven-bay,  and  was  in- 
tersected in  the  beginning  by  the  Concord-Sudbury  road  ; 
at  a  later  day  (1754)  by  the  Lincoln-Waltham  road  ;  and, 
finally  (1844)  by  the  right-of-way  of  the  Fitchburg  railroad. 
It  originally  included  most  of  the  holdings  now  (1904) 
belonging  to  Henry  S.  Warner,  H.  L.  Higginson,  George 
Baker  and  C.  F.  Adams,  as  well  as  the  Codman  place. 

The  original  Bulkeley  grant,  made  prior  to  1665,  after 
passing  through  various  hands,  was  purchased,  in  whole 
or  part,  by  Charles  Chambers,  of  Charlestown.  He  built 
on  it  the  large,  colonial  mansion  house,  still  standing,  for 
Chambers  Russell,  the  eldest  son  of  his  only  child  Re- 
becca, to  whom  he,  by  his  will,  left  the  property.  This 
Charles  Chambers  was  a  man  of  prominence  in  the  Pro- 
vince, coming  to  Massachusetts  from  Lincolnshire,  Eng- 
land, about  1688,  and  dying  in  Charlestown,  his  place  of 
residence,  in  1743.  Coming  over  when  a  young  man  of 
twenty-seven,  he  was  for  many  years  a  member  of  the 
Council  of  the  Province,  and  a  judge  of  the  Court  of  Com- 
mon Pleas.  He  was  twice  married;  and  by  his  second 
wife,  Rebecca  Patefield,  had  one  child,  Rebecca,  born 
March  31,  1691,  who  subsequently  married  Daniel  Russell. 
He  also  lived  in  Charlestown.  Born  in  1685,  Daniel  Rus- 
sell, like  Charles  Chambers,  was  many  years  a  member  of 
the  Council,  and  for  over  fifty  years  treasurer  of  Middlesex 
County.  By  his  wife,  Rebecca  Chambers,  Daniel  Russell 
had  nine  children,  the  second  of  which.  Chambers,  was 
born  July  4,  17 13.  His  mother,  Mrs.  Daniel  Russell,  died 
in  1729,  fourteen  years  before  the  death  of  her  father,  the 
owner  of  the  Lincoln  property.  Chambers  Russell  himself, 
passing  his  youth  at  Charlestown,  entered  Harvard  at  four- 

141 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

teen,  and  was  graduated  in  the  class  of  173 1.  At  that  time 
it  was  the  practice  to  print  the  names  of  those  composing 
the  class,  not,  as  now,  in  alphabetical  order,  but  the  place  of 
each  was  assigned  arbitrarily,  and  in  accordance  with  the 
social  estimate  in  which  his  family  was  held.  For  instance, 
John  Adams  was  graduated  in  1755,  twenty-four  years 
after  Chambers  Russell.  Alphabetically  his  name  would 
have  been  first  on  the  list  of  his  class  ;  the  fourteenth  place 
in  twenty-four  was  assigned  to  him.  Alphabetically, 
Chambers  Russell  would  appear  twenty-fourth  in  his  class 
of  thirty-four ;  he  does  appear  first.  The  esteem  in  which 
both  the  Russell  and  the  Chambers  families  were  held  is 
shown  in  this  assignment. 

Soon  after  graduation  Chambers  Russell  settled  in  that 
part  of  Lincoln  then  belonging  to  Concord,  on  his  grand- 
father's farm.  He  married  seven  years  later,  in  his  twenty- 
fifth  year ;  and,  probably,  the  original  L  shaped  house 
had  then  already  been  built.  After  Lincoln  was  set-ofF 
and  incorporated  Chambers  Russell  was  eight  times  sent 
to  represent  it  in  the  General  Court.  He  was  appointed 
a  judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  in  1747,  and 
also  of  Vice  Admiralty;  in  1752  he  was  commissioned 
as  judge  of  the  Superior  Court  of  Judicature,  then  the  tri- 
bunal of  final  appeal.  In  August,  1762,  his  wife  died,  in 
Lincoln,  never  having  borne  children.  Upon  the  death  of 
Mrs.  Russell,  described  at  some  length  in  the  town-book 
of  records  as  "  the  virtuous  consort  "  etc..  Judge  Russell, 
then  already  it  would  seem  in  failing  health,  reluctantly 
decided  to  visit  England.  Dying  there,  he  was  buried  in 
Bunhill  Fields,  London,  where  a  monument  in  his  memory 
subsequently  stood.  Having  no  children,  he  bequeathed  his 
place  in  Lincoln  to  his  nephew  Charles  Russell,  the  son  of 
his  younger  brother,  James  (1715-1758).  Charles  Russell, 
born  in  Charlestown  in  1738,  was  graduated  in  1757,  his 

142 


APPENDIX 

name  appearing  sixth  in  a  class  numbering  twenty-six.  Study- 
ing medicine,  first  in  this  country  and  subsequently  in  Eng- 
land, he  received  (i  765)  a  doctor's  degree  from  the  University 
of  Aberdeen.  Returning  to  Massachusetts  he  settled  as  a 
physician  in  Lincoln,  his  uncle  having  left  to  him  the  farm. 
He  then  (1768)  married  Elizabeth  Vassall,  of  Cambridge, 
by  whom  he  had  five  children,  all  born  in  Lincoln.  An 
eminent  man  in  his  profession,  and  in  every  way  a  useful 
citizen.  Dr.  Charles  Russell  was,  in  politics,  a  Tory  and 
loyalist,  and  subsequently  an  exile.  Lincoln,  as  the  Rev. 
William  Lawrence  had  occasion  at  that  time  to  know,  was 
patriotic  in  sentiment ;  and,  probably.  Dr.  Russell  had  been 
made  to  realize  that  his  neighbors  viewed  him  with  suspicion. 
In  any  event,  he  is  said  to  have  left  Lincoln  in  the  midst  of 
the  excitement  of  April  19,  1775.  He  then,  temporarily, 
exchanged  dwellings  with  Henderson  Inches,  a  merchant 
resident  in  Boston,  who  was  as  anxious  to  move  out  of  that 
town,  then  besieged,  as  Dr.  Russell  was  anxious  to  move 
into  it.  Shortly  after,  he  sailed  for  the  island  of  Antigua,  in 
the  West  Indies,  where  Mrs.  Vassall,  his  mother-in-law, 
had  inherited  plantations.  All  the  Vassalls  were  loyalists. 
Placed  in  charge  of  the  hospital  established  at  Antigua  for 
the  prisoners  of  war  from  the  States,  he  demeaned  himself 
in  that  position  most  creditably,  and  his  countrymen  under 
his  charge  were  open  in  their  expressions  of  gratitude.  He 
died  at  Antigua  in  May,  1780,  while  the  war  was  yet  going 
on,  and  at  about  the  time  of  the  capture  of  Charleston  by 
Lord  Cornwallis,  a  few  months  previous  to  the  Benedict 
Arnold  treason ;  his  widow  and  children,  later,  returned  to 
Massachusetts.  Meanwhile,  when  in  March,  1776,  the 
British  evacuated  Boston,  Mr.  Inches  returned  to  his  house 
there  from  Lincoln.  Apparently  the  Russell  house  remained 
unoccupied,  until  James  Russell,  the  father  of  Dr.  Charles, 
moved  into  it  from  his  place  of  refuge  at  Dunstable  j  for, 

143 


THE   TOWN    OF    LINCOLN 

at  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  Charlestown  had 
been  burned,  and  James  Russell's  house  destroyed.  The 
house  and  farm  at  Lincoln  were  the  property  of  his  son,  a 
loyalist  refugee,  proscribed  under  the  Banishment  Act  of 
1778.  The  son's  estate  was  confiscated ;  and,  December 
10, 1777,  agency  of  it  had  been  granted  to  Elnathan  Jones, 
of  Concord. 

A  new  complication  involving  the  title  to  the  Lincoln 
property  now  arose.  When  Chambers  Russell  was  making 
his  arrangements  for  going  to  England,  in  1766,  he  mort- 
gaged his  house  and  farm  to  John  Hancock  to  secure  a 
loan  of  ;£"3000,  or  ^10,000.  James  Russell  was  execu- 
tor of  Chambers  Russell,  and  he  now  came  forward,  with 
evidence  that  this  mortgage,  never  having  been  discharged, 
was  an  existing  lien  on  the  estate.  His  son,  Chambers 
Russell,  second  of  the  name,  and  a  brother  of  Dr.  Charles, 
thereupon  purchased  the  equity  of  redemption,  and  in  1784 
discharged  the  mortgage.  He  thus  became  by  purchase  the 
owner  of  the  confiscated  farm,  which  had  belonged  to  his 
brother. 

The  younger  Chambers  Russell  was  born  in  Charlestown 
in  1755.  A  merchant  by  calling,  he  accumulated  a  hand- 
some fortune,  and  died  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  in  1790.  He 
left  the  Lincoln  estate  to  his  nephew,  Charles  Russell  Cod- 
man,  the  son  of  his  youngest  sister,  Margaret  (1757— 1789), 
who  had  married  John  Codman,  Jr.,  of  Boston. 

It  was  now  that  the  Russell  place  passed  into  the  Cod- 
man  family.  John  Codman,  Jr.  (i  755-1 803),  finding  that 
the  estate  of  his  brother-in-law,  the  younger  Chambers  Rus- 
sell, would  be  insufficient  to  meet  the  legacies  in  his  will 
without  selling  the  place  at  Lincoln,  decided  to  pay  the 
legacies  himself,  and  take  the  place.  He  did  so,  occupying 
the  mansion  house,  which  he  remodelled  and  enlarged,  as  a 
country  residence.    Dying,  he  bequeathed  the  property  to 

144 


APPENDIX 

his  second  son,  Charles  Russell  Codman,  carrying  out  his 
brother-in-law's  wishes  in  that  respect. 

Charles  Russell  Codman,  born  in  Boston,  December  19, 
1784,  was  not  yet  of  age  when  he  inherited  the  Lincoln 
property, —  the  fifth  in  descent  from  Charles  Chambers. 
He  came  of  age  in  1805,  and  shortly  after  divided  the  farm, 
selling  the  northern  portion  of  it,  on  which  stood  the  old 
farmhouse,  in  which  Dr.  Stearns  for  years  lived,  to  Amos 
Bemis,  in  1807.  The  southern,  and  larger,  portion,  on 
which  stood  the  mansion,  the  slaves'  quarters,  and  the 
principal  farm  structures,  including  the  farmhouse,  he  con- 
veyed May  23,  1807,  to  Charles  De  Wolf,  a  member  of 
the  well-known  Rhode  Island  family  of  that  name.  The 
Chambers  Russell  estate  now  changed  ownership  frequently. 
Charles  De  Wolf,  having  bought  it  in  May,  1807,  in 
1812  conveyed  it  to  Andrew  Homer,  of  Boston.  Andrew 
Homer  in  his  turn  conveyed  it  in  1816  to  James  Percival. 
He  died  at  Lincoln  in  1826;  and  in  1835  his  executors 
sold  the  "  Codman  farm  "  to  C.  F.  Minns,  a  merchant  of 
Boston.  Mr.  Minns  died  at  Lincoln  in  1841  ;  and,  under 
date  of  November  14,  1862,  his  widow  and  children  con- 
veyed the  property,  described  as  "  a  certain  farm  in  Lincoln, 
called  the  Codman  place,"  to  Ogden  Codman,  the  son  of 
the  Charles  Russell  Codman,  who,  fifty-five  years  before, 
had  sold  the  place  to  Charles  De  Wolf.  Ogden  Codman 
was  owner  of  it  forty-two  years,  dying  in  Lincoln  October 
25,  1904.  He  was  the  tenth  in  ownership  of  the  mansion 
since  it  was  built,  circa  1 7 10,  the  successive  occupants 
having  been  as  follows  :  — 

Charles  Chambers,  to  1743 

Chambers  Russell,  1743  to  1767 

Charles  Russell,  '^1^7  to  1775 

Chambers  Russell,  1781  to  1790 
145 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

John  Codman,  ^790  to  1803 

Charles  Russell  Codman,  1803  to  1807 
Charles  De  Wolf,  1807  to  18 12 

Andrew  Homer,  1812  to  1816 

James  Percival,  18 16  to  1835 

Constant  F.  Minns,  1835  to  1862 

Ogden  Codman,  1862  to  1904 

Ogden  Codman,  the  recent  owner  of  the  place,  was  a 
descendant  of  Charles  Chambers,  of  Daniel  Russell,  and 
of  John  Codman ;  but  not  of  Judge  Chambers  Russell,  nor 
of  Dr.  Charles  Russell.  Chambers  Russell,  so  closely  asso- 
ciated in  every  way  with  the  origin  and  development  of 
Lincoln,  left  no  progeny.  Ogden  Codman  was  also  the 
eleventh  owner  of  the  place  in  succession,  whether  by 
descent,  bequest  or  purchase,  from  Charles  Chambers,  the 
whole  period  covering,  approximately,  two  centuries. 


ANNIVERSARY    POEM 

By  Julius  E.  Eveleth 

Nestling  close  and  secure  among  the  grand  New 
England  hills, 
Where  the  breezes  softly  laden  bear  sweet  per- 
fumes all  the  day. 
Lies  a  gem  of  rustic  beauty  with  its  rocks  and  flow- 
ing rills. 
And  lakes  of  silvery  water  rich  with  shadows  soft 
and  gray. 

The  wooded  sloping  hillsides,  the  fields  of  green  and 
brown. 
The  pastures  specked  with  cattle  so  placid  and 
content. 
The  spires  that  point  to  heaven  and  mark  the  rural 
town. 
The  plowman's  cheery  laughter  on  work  or  plea- 
sure bent ; 

All  speak  of  peace  and  plenty,  the  charm  of  country 
life ; 
No  eager  thirst  for  riches,  the  canker  that  doth 
spoil. 
Content  to  dwell  with  nature  apart  from  the  hum 
and  strife. 
The  richest  lord  of  the  manor ;  a  tiller  of  the  soil. 
147 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

A  home  for  sturdy  yeomen  of  the  type  that  left  the 
shore 
Of  the  far-off  mother  country,  the  land  that  gave 
them  birth, 
To  breathe  the  air  of  freedom  that  was  richly  held  in 
store 
Awaited  the  glad  coming  of  these  noble  sons  of 
earth. 

No  easy  task  befell  them  to  fix  the  ground  for 
seed. 
To  clear  the  tangled  wild-wood  and  hew  the  logs 
of  pine; 
The  autumn's  yellow  ripeness  was  sorely  in  their 
need. 
The  tasselled  corn  to  harvest  and  fruit  of  running 
vine. 

The  whirr  of  flying  arrow,   the  clang  of  bended 
bow, 
Oft  broke  upon  the  quiet  and  darkness  of  the 
night; 
The  war-whoop*s  warning  signal  marked  the  coming 
of  the  foe ; 
To   defend,   the   only    watchword,    no   coward's 
thought  of  flight. 

The  rigors  of  the  winter,  the  need  of  warmth  and 
food. 
Only  fanned  the  flaming  ardor,  nor  quenched  the 
firm  desire ; 

148 


ANNIVERSARY   POEM 

The  danger  that  lay  waiting  in  the  darkness  of  the 
wood. 
Knit  the  bond  of  friendship  closer  as  the  steel  is 
forged  by  fire. 

A  band  of  godly  people  where  duty  grew  apace, 
With  courage  of  conviction  and  purpose  not  in 
vain. 
These  sons  of  Pilgrim  Fathers,  the  peers  of  any  race. 
With  nerves  of  steely  texture  and  strength  of  heart 
and  brain. 

Pursued  the  even  tenor  of  the  thrifty  husbandman. 
Believing  that  the  harvest  would  follow  without  fail 

The  labor  of  the  seed-time,  nor  cease  in  nature's  plan 
To  reward  with  sure  abundance  the  threshing  of 
the  flail. 

Years  pass  in  rhythmic  order,  the  sun,  the  moon,  the 
star 
Fail  not  to  keep  their  orbit  and  light  by  day  and 
night ; 
The  hoary  frosts  of  winter  leave  trace  of  seam  and 
scar. 
The  whitened  locks  grow  thinner  and   dimness 
mars  the  sight. 

Clouds  fleck  the  fair  horizon,  there  are  murmurs  in 
the  air 
Which  speak  of  dire  oppression  from  far  off  over 
seas. 

149 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

The   tyrant's   hungry   coffers   must  fatten,   foul  or 
fair, 
Resistance,  to  the  mandate,  is    borne    on  every 
breeze. 

The   blood  that   coursed    the   veins    of  men    who 
sought  a  shore. 
Of  barren  rock  and  forest  gloom,  sweet  liberty  to 
gain. 
Still  filled  the  brain  and  swelled  the  heart  with  cour- 
age as  of  yore, 
And  needed  but  a  spark  to  fire  rebellion's  lurid 
train. 

More  lurid  grew  the  western  sky  as  sunset  marked 
the  hour 
Of  daylight's  fading  glory  and  the  coming  of  the 
night. 
So  darker  grew  the  future,  as  the  crushing  sense  of 
power 
Obscured  the  light  of  freedom  ;  the  hope  of  peace 
took  flight. 

The  plowshare  and  the  musket  grew  friendly  side 
by  side. 
To  mould  and  turn  the  furrow  and  answer  to  the 
sound 
Of  the  distant  rolling  drums,  as  a  warning  to  pro- 
vide 
'Gainst  the  coming  of  the  foe,  and  defend  the 
sacred  ground. 

150 


The  Dr.  Stearns  House 

Residence  of  Mr.  Cyrus  Grosvenor  Smith 

(p.  225) 


ANNIVERSARY   POEM 

The  brows  of  men  grew  sterner  at  the  thought  of 
coming  strife. 
And  their  hearts  grew  only  stronger,  as  they  felt 
the  patriots*  thrill; 
To  gain  the  priceless  treasure  meant  sacrifice  of  life, 
The  honored  graves  of  martyrs  were  theirs  to 
bravely  fill. 

When  on  that  fateful  morning  the  drum-beat  called 
to  arms 
The  minute  men  of  Concord  and  the  brotherhood 
of  towns. 
And  beside  the  flowing  river  from  off  the  peaceful 
farms 
A  host  of  patriots  gathered  in  response  to  martial 
sounds ; 

None  braver  stood  or  truer,  than  the  noble  valiant  few 
From  the  hamlet  on  the  border,  first  to  greet  the 
rising  sun ; 
Where  Revere,  the  peerless  rider  'neath  the  mid- 
night's falling  dew 
Was  halted  on  his  mission ;  but  the  noble  work 
was  done. 

The  news  went  flying  onward  as  another  horseman 
sped, 
O'er  wall  and  rocky  pasture  in  the  darkness  of 
the  night. 
And   aroused    the   soldier   farmers   as   he  bravely 
dashed  ahead. 
They  needed  only  warning  to  follow  in  the  flight. 
151 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

The  muffled  hoof-beats  sounded  along  the  winding 
road 
Of  Lincoln's  northern  border  on  that  starlit  April 
night. 
No  thought  of  backward  turning,  the  gallant  Pres- 
cott  rode 
A  herald  with  a  summons,  a  champion  of  the  right. 

Responsive  to  the  warning,  alert  and  eager  men, 
In  the  name  of  God  and  Freedom,  and  the  hearth 
they  held  so  dear, 
Went  forth  to  battle  nobly,  nor  thought  they  where 
or  when 
The   summons   might   be  waiting  to  call   them 
home  from  here. 

The  daylight  of  the  morrow  as  it  tinged  the  eastern 
sky 
Like  a  prayer  and  benediction  fell  on  hearts  with 
passion  tossed ; 
The  sunset's  purple  shadows  closed  a  day,  when  do 
or  die 
The   angel     had    recorded.    The    Rubicon    was 
crossed. 

Historian,  sage,  and  poet  tell  the  story  of  that  day 
And  recall  the  noble  valor  the  minute  men  dis- 
played ; 
A  righteous  cause  demanded  they  bravely  meet  the 
fray 
And  trust  the  God  of  battles,  'gainst  the  odds  so 
great  arrayed. 

152 


ANNIVERSARY   POEM 

Brave  men  went  down  in  glory,  and  Lincoln's  soil 
drank  deep 
Of  the  sacred  blood  of  martyrs  that  were  sacri- 
ficed for  right. 
Her  tablets  mark  with  honor  the  hallowed  spots  we 
keep 
In  sacred  recollection  through  the  ages'  waning 
light. 

Ere   a   century  had  recorded   its  span  of  passing 
years. 
The  flag,  the  sacred  emblem  that  crowns  a  nation's 
life, 
The  prize  of  hope's  fruition  of  sacrifice  and  tears, 
In  danger  drooped  its  colors  ;  there  was  need  to 
save  the  life. 

Again  the  call  resounded  throughout  the  stricken 
land 
For  defenders  of  Old  Glory.    Responsive  to  the 
sound. 
The  sons  of  men  who  battled,  that  liberty  might 
stand. 
Left  plow  within  the  furrow  and  seedlings  in  the 
ground. 

On  the  hillside  sleeps  the  warrior,  a  gray  stone  marks 
the  spot, 
Moss-grown  and  stained  with  ages,  a  relic  of  the 
past. 

153 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

On  the  plain,  away  down  yonder,  no  gallant  deed 
forgot, 
Sweetly  rests  the  flag  defender,  —  his  memory  will 
last. 

The  pine  trees  whisper  softly  and  bid  the  soldier 
sleep, 
The  starry  dome  of  heaven,  the  roof  that  shelters 
him. 
The  oak  trees'  spreading  branches,  brave  sentinels, 
will  keep 
The  vigils  of  the  sleeper  through  ages  faint  and 
dim. 

The  birds  of  joyous  springtime  will  sing  their  songs 
of  mirth. 
The  buds  will  burst  their  fetters  and  clothe  the 
naked  trees, 
The  grasses  of  the  meadow,  the  gifts  of  mother 
earth. 
Will  wave  in  rhythmic  motion,  caressed  by  every 
breeze. 

The   fruit   will   follow  blossom    and   ripen   as    of 
yore. 
The  harvest  follow  seeding  'neath  the  autumn's 
golden  sun. 
The   chilling  frosts   of  winter  will  wither   as   be- 
fore. 
The  dawning  follow  darkness  and  mark  the  day 
begun. 

154 


ANNIVERSARY   POEM 

Peace  reigns  within  our  border  and  plenty  is  our 
store. 
No  cloud-lines  mar  the  future,  time  softens  all  the 
past. 
We  have  met  to  clothe  with  honor  the  heroes  gone 
before, 
And  recall  their  deeds  of  valor,  —  such  deeds  for- 
ever last. 

To  claim  this  noble  kinship  is  the  heritage  by  blood 
Of  the  living  sons  of  freemen  who  battled  for  the 
right. 
A  greeting,  men  of  Lincoln,  you  stand  where  patri- 
ots stood. 
This  is  your  honored  birthday,  midway  the  cen- 
tury's flight. 


ANTHEM 

GOD    OF   OUR   FATHERS 

RuDYARD  Kipling 

God  of  our  fathers,  known  of  old, 
Lord  of  our  far-flung  battle  line. 
Beneath  whose  awful  hand  we  hold 
Dominion  over  palm  and  pine, 
Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet, 
Lest  we  forget,  lest  we  forget. 

The  tumult  and  the  shouting  dies. 
The  captains  and  the  kings  depart : 
Still  stands  Thine  ancient  sacrifice. 
An  humble  and  a  contrite  heart. 
Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet, 
Lest  we  forget,  lest  we  forget. 

Far  called  our  navies  melt  away. 
On  dune  and  headland  sinks  the  fire ; 
Lo  !  all  our  pomp  of  yesterday 
Is  one  with  Nineveh  and  Tyre ; 
Judge  of  the  nations,  spare  us  yet. 
Lest  we  forget,  lest  we  forget. 

If,  drunk  with  sight  of  power,  we  loose 
Wild  tongues  that  have  not  Thee  in  awe, 
156 


ANTHEM 

Such  boasting  as  the  Gentiles  use, 
Or  lesser  breeds  without  the  Law, 
Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet. 
Lest  we  forget,  lest  we  forget. 

For  heathen  heart  that  puts  her  trust 
In  reeking  tube  and  iron  shard, 
All  valiant  dust  that  builds  on  dust. 
And  guarding  calls  not  Thee  to  guard. 
For  frantic  boast  and  foolish  word. 
Thy  mercy  on  Thy  people.  Lord  ! 


THE    BANQUET 


THE  BANQUET 
ADDRESS  OF  MOORFIELD  STOREY,  ESQ. 

We  are  met  to  celebrate  the  one  hundred  and  fifti- 
eth birthday  of  this  pleasant  town,  and  are  glad  to 
welcome  at  our  table  so  many  of  our  friends. 

It  has  been,  I  confess,  somewhat  painful  to  be  met 
at  the  very  threshold  of  our  celebration  by  the  sugges- 
tion, made  doubtless  by  persons  jealous  of  our  venera- 
ble age,  or  who  perhaps  were  not  invited  to  our  feast, 
that  we  do  not  know  our  own  birthday,  and  that  Lin- 
coln was  really  born  on  April  19th  and  not  on  April 
23  d.  Our  ancestors,  however,  were  a  long-headed  race, 
and  having  the  right  denied  to  us  as  individuals  of 
choosing  their  own  birthday,  they  selected  the  23  d,  and 
for  the  best  of  reasons.  They  foresaw  that  our  neigh- 
bors. Concord  and  Lexington,  would  want  the  19th  for 
purposes  of  their  own,  and  they  decided  wisely  that 
the  burden  would  be  too  heavy  for  one  day,  if  it  were 
at  once  the  birthday  of  a  town  like  Lincoln  and  of  a 
new  nation  like  the  United  States,  and  therefore  they 
postponed  the  birth  of  Lincoln  till  the  23d,  and  made 
due  entry  of  the  fact  upon  the  records  of  the  town,  our 
family  Bible.  Hence  Lincoln  has  its  own  day,  and  in 
true  neighborly  spirit  leaves  Lexington  and  Concord 
to  discuss  which  owns  the  19th,  without  pressing  its 
own  much  older  claim. 

161 


THE   TOWN    OF.  LINCOLN 


I  have  felt  that  the  honor  of  presiding  at  this  din- 
ner should  have  been  given  to  some  one  older  than 
I,  for  though  appearances  are  against  me,  and  might 
mislead  the  unthinking,  I  am  really  among  the  young- 
est citizens  of  Lincoln.  As  such  I  am  only  five  years 
old,  and  wholly  unable  to  imagine  how  one  feels  at 
one  hundred  and  fifty.  Indeed,  as  I  rose  to  address 
you,  I  could  not  help  thinking  of  the  old  and  excel- 
lent rule  so  often  impressed  upon  us  all,  that  children 
should  be  seen  rather  than  heard.  But  though  I  have 
lived  among  you  so  short  a  time,  I  must  admit  that 
elsewhere  I  am  placed  among  the  grandsires,  and  it 
is  more  than  forty  years  since  I  first  learned  to  know 
and  love  Lincoln.  I  was  then  a  boy  in  college,  and 
spent  many  a  holiday  in  walking  to  Concord  over  the 
turnpike  or  the  Trapelo  Road,  and  often  in  later  years 
when  tired  I  have  rested  myself  by  driving  over  the 
same  peaceful  ways. 

Lincoln  is  the  centre  of  a  region  which  has  changed 
little  in  half  a  century.  It  still  preserves  the  simplicity, 
the  dignity,  the  character  of  the  old  Middlesex  County, 
of  which  Massachusetts  has  always  been  so  proud,  and 
we  who  dwell  here  should  congratulate  ourselves  that, 
while  we  are  near  enough  to  get  the  benefits,  we  have 
escaped  the  contamination  of  a  great  city.  The  simple 
homelike  houses  of  this  old  New  England  town  are 
not  called  upon  to  blush  by  neighbors  painted  and 
decorated  in  the  fantastic  fashions  with  which  men 
slander  the  fair  name  of  Queen  Anne.  The  specula- 
tive builder  has  not  laid  out  our  fields  in  lots,  cut  down 
our  trees,  or  disfigured  our  roads  with  boxes  of  apart- 

162 


THE   BANaUET 

ments,  those  poor  apologies  for  homes.  Men  dwell  in 
the  houses  in  which  their  fathers  dwelt,  succeed  to  the 
places  of  their  fathers  in  the  community,  take  up  their 
burdens  when  they  lay  them  down,  and  thus  give  to 
our  society  a  stability  which  is  unhappily  too  rare  in 
our  rapidly  shifting  American  life  where,  in  the  words 
of  Lowell,  "  Time  obliterates  the  labor  and  often  the 
names  of  yesterday."  Here  we  know  that  from  the 
same  doors  have  come  forth  for  generations  the  same 
qualities,  the  same  contributions  to  the  life  of  the 
town,  the  same  family  characteristics.  The  dwellers 
in  the  homes  of  their  fathers,  the  sons  of  these  honor- 
able families,  inherit  something  which  is  not  known 
among  the  changing  population  of  a  city  or  its  sub- 
urbs :  something  which  adds  a  value,  a  dignity,  a 
serenity  to  life  which  nothing  can  replace.  They  have 
a  stake  in  the  community  of  priceless  value  to  the 
public  weal.  It  is  in  towns  like  this  that  the  high 
traditions  of  New  England  are  preserved,  that  the 
spirit  of  ordered  freedom  is  left  alive. 

One  by  one  these  landmarks  of  the  days  and  the 
life  which  made  Massachusetts  what  she  is,  are  over- 
whelmed by  the  crowd  of  strangers  who  follow  the 
convenient  lines  of  modern  transportation  and  lead 
the  frivolous,  pleasure-seeking  lives  that  are  so  much 
desired  in  our  country  to-day.  Let  us  while  we  may 
preserve  for  Lincoln  her  unique  position  among  the 
neighbors  of  a  great  city,  that  our  children  may  know 
what  manner  of  life  was  led  by  those  who  laid  the 
foundations  of  our  state,  and  in  a  New  England  town- 
meeting  may  learn  the  principles  of  free  government. 

163 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

But  I  am  violating  the  sound  rule  which  I  have 
quoted,  and  setting  a  bad  example  to  those  whom 
you  are  hoping  to  hear,  by  talking  too  long. 

Our  first  thought  on  our  birthday  should  be  of 
our  mother,  and  we  as  pious  children  of  Massa- 
chusetts naturally  turn  to  her  who  gave  us  birth 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  I  hope  she  will 
give  us  her  blessing  now  through  the  lips  of  her 
young  but  eminent  son,  whom  she  has  set  over  all 
her  other  children.  He  needs  no  introduction,  and 
so  I  may  only  with  great  pleasure  present  to  you 
his  Excellency,  Governor  Bates. 


REMARKS    BY   GOVERNOR   JOHN    L.    BATES 

Mr.  Toastmaster  and  Fellow  Citizens  :  The 
thing  which  most  impresses  one  coming  from  the 
great  city  that  is  so  near,  is  to  find  how  compara- 
tively untouched  this  town  is  by  the  encroachments 
of  modern  activities.  Not  that  your  people  lack 
enterprise,  push,  and  energy,  but  that  it  has  been 
exhibited  at  a  distance,  and  they  have  kept  this  place 
free  from  business,  from  manufactures,  from  trade, 
kept  it  in  the  condition  that  it  has  been  for  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years,  —  a  retreat,  beautiful  as  nature 
can  make  it,  and  uninjured  by  man.  In  its  physical 
aspect  it  thus  presents  a  picture  of  the  Common- 
wealth as  it  was  a  century  and  a  half  ago,  or  as  it  was 
on  that  first  Patriot's  Day,  the  anniversary  of  which  we 
have  so  recently  celebrated,  the  19th  of  April,  1775. 

164 


The  Hoar  House 

Residence  of  Mr.  Edward  W,  Pope 

(P-  225) 


'^hi-4JJM 


THE   BANQUET 

What  has  this  community  to  celebrate  on  this  its 
one  hundred  and  fiftieth  natal  day?  Communities 
celebrate  great  progress,  and  they  celebrate  great 
deeds.  I  find  that  a  large  increase  of  population, 
the  multiplication  of  building  upon  building,  the 
gathering  to  a  common  centre  of  mill  and  forge 
and  manufactory,  enormous  strides  in  business,  and 
the  accumulation  of  wealth,  are  often  spoken  of  by 
communities  in  a  way  that  indicates  their  pride  in 
such  things.  But  Lincoln  has  not  largely  increased 
in  population.  It  is  one  of  the  very  few  towns 
within  our  Commonwealth  that  has  no  manufactures 
whatever  within  its  precincts.  Here  there  are  no 
busy  marts  for  barter  or  for  trade,  and  here,  while 
there  is  no  indication  of  want  on  the  part  of  any  of 
your  citizens,  there  certainly  have  not  been  large  ac- 
cumulations of  wealth,  except  as  such  accumulations 
have  been  brought  here  by  those  who,  attracted  by 
the  beauty  of  your  hills,  have  come  to  dwell  among 
you.  But  in  great  deeds  and  in  manner  of  living, 
and  in  the  achievements  of  self-government,  you 
have  all  to  celebrate  that  any  ideal  community  can 
celebrate.  In  peace  you  have  maintained  the  prin- 
ciples of  self-government,  and  ruled  yourselves 
wisely,  and  with  credit  taken  part  in  the  larger  de- 
liberations of  the  representative  bodies  of  the  state 
and  nation.  From  your  people,  and  from  those  who 
look  back  to  Lincoln  as  the  place  of  their  ancestry, 
have  come  many  of  the  leaders  in  the  world  of 
thought,  and  in  the  national  life.  When  war  has 
sounded  its  alarm,  your  citizens  have  not  been  back- 

165 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

ward.  They  have  given  more  than  the  quota  as- 
signed to  them  in  every  struggle  in  which  the  nation 
has  participated.  Hired  men  among  them  ?  Yes, 
there  may  have  been,  but  not  so  with  the  majority. 
Towns  that  have  to  hire  men  do  not  send  beyond 
their  quota  to  the  fields  of  battle.  The  1 9th  of  April, 
1775,  was  a  day  when  the  affairs  of  the  people  of  this 
land  had  reached  a  crisis.  The  company  of  minute- 
men  from  Lincoln  was  ready  at  Concord  Bridge 
when  the  time  came  for  action ;  and  as  the  liberties 
of  America  were  born  in  the  fortitude  of  the  men 
who  resisted  the  British  invasion  on  that  morning, 
a  resistance  in  which  Lincoln  had  a  noble  and  effec- 
tive part,  so  is  the  name  of  Lincoln  to  be  associated 
with  those  of  Concord  and  Lexington  by  a  grateful 
people. 

So  to-day  we  celebrate  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
of  independent  thought,  one  hundred  and  fifty  years 
of  peaceful  living,  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of 
patriotic  service,  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  of 
contented  life.  This  town  has  in  the  life  of  its 
citizens  shown  that  Pope  was  wrong  when  he  wrote 
that 

"Man  never  is,  but  always  to  be,  blessed.** 

Here  in  the  valleys  and  on  the  slopes  of  the  hills 
have  been  the  homes  of  contented,  happy  people. 
Here  has  been  taught  the  lesson  that  happiness  is 
not  to  be  found  in  busy  strife,  or  in  ambitious  pur- 
suits, but  in  the  satisfaction  that  comes  from  simple 
living  in  contact  with  nature,  seeking  to  have  the 

166 


THE   BANaUET 

genuine  rather  than  the  artificial,  the  real  rather  than 
the  unreal. 

So  on  this  day  perhaps  there  is  no  better  lesson 
than  that  which  comes  from  the  contemplation  of 
the  virtues  of  the  people  who  redeemed  this  land 
from  a  wilderness  and  made  it  their  abode.  As  one 
who  brings  out  the  old  furniture  from  the  attic  or 
the  cellar  or  the  loft  of  the  barn,  and  brushes  off  the 
dust  and  the  mould,  is  impressed  by  the  beauty  of 
the  old  design,  by  its  grace  and  character,  so  should 
we  on  such  occasions  as  these  study  the  rugged 
virtues  of  the  fathers  of  old  and  grow  stronger, 
better,  and  wiser  as  we  contemplate  that  patriotism 
that  never  failed,  that  courage  that  was  never  daunted, 
that  simple  faith  that  was  never  staggered,  and  that 
sweet  contentment  of  mind  that  caused  their  lives 
to  flow  on  "  like  the  rivers  through  the  woodlands 
darkened  by  the  shadows  of  earth,  but  reflecting  the 
image  of  heaven." 

Mr.  Storey.  —  We  are  greatly  indebted  to  our 
townsman,  Mr.  Adams,  for  the  admirable  address  to 
which  we  have  listened  to-day.  It  will  be  remem- 
bered as  a  permanent  contribution  to  the  annals  of 
the  town,  and  in  the  name  of  all  its  inhabitants 
present  and  to  come  I  am  glad  to  give  him  our 
warmest  thanks.  I  am  sure  that  this  very  fresh  ex- 
perience of  his  speech  will  only  make  you  anxious 
to  hear  from  him  again,  and  I  therefore  ask  him  if 
he  will  not  add  to  our  obligations  by  a  few  words 
now. 

167 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

(By  Mr.  Adams's  request  his  remarks  at  the 
Banquet  are  not  printed  in  the  Proceedings,  as  he 
felt  he  had  occupied  sufficient  space  by  his  speech  in 
the  afternoon.) 

Mr.  Storey. —  I  came  among  you  as  a  farmer, 
anxious  to  try  my  hand  at  a  new  enterprise,  and  in- 
spired by  the  high  ideal  which  my  friend  Mr.  Brooks 
set  before  me  at  my  first  town-meeting  when  he  said, 
"  One  farmer  is  worth  more  than  six  lawyers."  I  have 
had  much  experience  since  then,  and  have  learned 
how  thorny  is  the  path  which  one,  who  has  had  the 
misfortune  to  be  bred  a  lawyer,  must  tread  before 
he  becomes  a  really  triumphant  farmer.  Even  the 
assessors  mocked  my  efforts  when  they  refused  to 
assess  my  land  as  a  farm,  though  I  assured  them 
that  I  was  conscientiously  doing  my  best  to  make  a 
farm  of  it,  and  that  I  thought  my  failure  to  make  any 
money  by  it  was  punishment  enough  without  their 
fining  me  besides. 

It  is  natural,  therefore,  that  I  should  respect  the 
men  who  succeed  where  I  have  failed,  and  I  had  not 
been  here  long  before  the  contrast  between  my  pre- 
carious asparagus  bed  and  the  acres  of  asparagus 
on  Mr. Baker's  farm  excited  my  admiration.  I  hope 
Mr.  Baker  will  tell  me  and  the  Governor  —  for  I 
fancy  we  are  the  poorest  farmers  here  —  something 
about  farming,  or  perhaps  better  give  us  some  re- 
miniscences of  the  farming  town  in  which  his  family 
has  so  long  held  an  honorable  place. 

i68 


THE   BANaUET 


REMARKS   OF   MR.    GEORGE   M.   BAKER 

Mr.  President  :  I  am  proud  to  represent  the 
Baker  name  here. 

John  Baker  and  Elizabeth  his  wife  came  from  Old 
England  to  New  England  with  six  children  and 
settled  in  Concord,  since  then  called  the  south- 
western part  of  Lincoln,  near  Baker  Bridge  railroad 
station.  They  had  four  children  born  in  what  is  now 
Lincoln.   They  came  about  1729. 

Jacob,  one  of  the  sons  born  in  England  in  1722, 
married  Grace  Billings,  born  across  the  road  oppo- 
site my  place,  now  owned  by  C.  F.  Adams.  The 
cellar  where  the  house  stood  is  now  to  be  seen.  The 
Billings  family  had  large  holdings  of  land.  Jacob  built 
the  old  Baker  house  now  owned  by  Mr.  Adams. 
They  had  a  large  family,  three  sons  of  which,  Jacob, 
Nathaniel,  and  Amos,  settled  in  Lincoln. 

Jacob,  born  1744,  settled  on  the  farm  now  owned 
by  Major  Higginson.  Nathaniel,  born  1746  (my 
grandfather),  and  Amos,  born  1756  (grandfather  of 
James  E.  Baker ),  both  settled  on  the  old  Baker  farm. 
One  occupied  the  east  end  of  the  house,  the  other 
the  west  end.  Each  kept  a  horse,  cows,  and  an  ox ; 
they  put  the  oxen  together  and  worked  them  when 
they  needed  them. 

They  did  their  work  together,  dividing  the  pro- 
ducts when  harvested  ;  mowing  and  raking  their  hay, 
then  dividing  in  the  field  and  carrying  to  the  separate 
barns.    They  brought  the  wood  to  the  door,  prepared 

169 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

it  for  the  fire,  and  their  wives  divided  it.  They  carried 
on  the  farm  together  till  my  grandfather  was  eighty 
years  old.  Both  had  good  families  of  children.  Who 
will  say  they  did  not  live  happy  and  profitable  lives  ? 
I  have  been  told  by  their  descendants  that  they  never 
had  a  word  of  contention.  Their  large  families  did 
not  make  them  less  happy,  a  lesson  for  this  genera- 
tion. When  my  grandfather  was  eighty,  he  sold  out 
to  James,  a  son  of  Amos,  the  father  of  the  present 
James  E. 

Nathaniel  left  three  daughters  and  a  son  —  Jacob, 
my  father.  He  bought  and  settled  on  the  farm 
now  occupied  by  myself  and  Walter  F.  and  family. 
He  came  here  at  eighty  and  died  at  ninety-two.  He 
awoke  as  usual  and  said  he  would  not  "get  up  just 
yet."  When  some  one  went  to  his  room  soon 
after,  it  was  found  that  he  had  passed  away  in  sleep. 
I  was  about  twelve  years  old  when  he  died.  I  was 
attached  to  him  and  he  to  me.  He  was  blind  several 
years.  I  read  to  him  from  the  Bible.  I  do  not  re- 
member a  single  cross  word  from  him. 

Jacob,  my  father,  was  killed  at  the  railroad  cross- 
ing below  Lincoln  station,  at  the  age  of  seventy-two. 
He  had  four  daughters  and  a  son ;  my  sisters  were 
all  older  than  myself,  and  three  of  them  are  still 
living. 

There  are  left  myself,  my  son  W.  F.,  and  his  two 
sons  to  represent  one  branch  of  the  Baker  name. 

Now  if  there  is  time  I  would  like  to  refer  to  some 
of  the  characteristics  of  our  ancestors  as  I  remember 
them: 

170 


THE   BANQUET 

I  St.  They  were  temperate  in  food,  drink,  and 
habits. 

2d.  They  were  industrious. 

3d.  They  were  a  frugal  people,  so  they  had  few 
paupers  to  support. 

4th.  They  were  modest,  but  jealous  of  their 
rights,  as  when  their  soil  was  invaded  by  a  foreign 
foe. 

5th.  They  were  inclined  to  mind  their  own  busi- 
ness. My  father  took  me  with  him  when  a  small 
boy  to  a  neighbor's  to  purchase  some  grass.  While 
he  and  the  neighbor  were  discussing  the  trade,  a 
stranger  to  my  father  volunteered  his  services  to  the 
neighbor.  My  father  looked  him  in  the  face  and 
said,  "  Mister,  I  have  got  a  good  living  by  mind- 
ing my  own  business."  I  need  not  say  the  stranger 
retired.    I  got  a  lesson  I  never  forgot. 

6th.  They  supported  good  roads.  There  were  two 
thoroughfares  through  the  length  of  the  town  over 
which  the  stages  ran,  and  all  the  freight  going  north 
was  teamed  over  these  two  roads,  which  was  a  great 
tax  to  the  town  till  the  Fitchburg  Railroad  was  built. 

7th.  They  supported  good  schools  that  stood  high 
among  the  schools  of  the  State ;  and  although  kept 
in  little  modest  houses  and  taught  mostly  by  gradu- 
ates of  these  schools,  they  turned  out  men  and  wo- 
men who  were  good  citizens  here,  and  those  who 
went  away  were  successful,  some  of  them  returning 
to  spend  their  last  days  in  their  old  town  and  mak- 
ing the  town  handsome  presents. 

8th.  They  elected  faithful  servants  to  care  for 
171 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

public  affairs.  The  office  sought  the  man  and  not 
the  man  the  office.    They  had  no  defaulters. 

9th.  They  were  a  law-abiding  community  ;  they 
never  supported  a  law  office. 

loth.  They  were  a  Sabbath-keeping  people. 

nth.  Class  distinction  and  gossip  have  not  been 
nurtured  among  us.  These  are  the  bane  of  society, 
like  rust  on  metals  or  vermin  on  vegetation,  de- 
stroying the  peace  and  happiness  of  society. 

By  following  these  traits  I  think  we  have  been  a 
peaceful,  prosperous,  and  happy  people.  May  we 
continue  in  them  !  Happiness  is  the  one  desire  of 
every  human  being,  but  sought  in  many  ways.  Be 
true  and  honest  to  self  and  others  is  the  best  way  to 
secure  it.  The  poet  says,  "  Love  God,  love  truth, 
love  virtue,  and  be  happy." 

And  now  I  think  I  hear  the  builders  of  this  little 
republic  unite  in  saying,  "  We  are  proud  and  happy 
that  we  are  stones  in  the  building.  We  earnestly 
hope  that  no  stones  that  enter  into  the  structure  will 
vaunt  themselves  above  us  the  foundation  stones ; 
we  are  all  happy  in  the  part  we  played.  No  magic 
tool  was  used  to  fit  us  for  our  places ;  we  were  fitted 
for  our  work  by  our  inheritance,  we  were  prepared 
in  the  '  meeting-house '  and  the  *  little  red  school- 
house.*    Our  motto  is  '  Truth.'  " 

Mr.  Storey.  —  There  are  few  if  any  names  that 
have  been  associated  longer  with  Lincoln  than  that 
of  Flint,  and  no  man  of  New  England  blood  can  con- 
template the  homestead  with  the  venerable  elm,  that 

172 


THE   BANQUET 

has  sheltered  so  many  generations,  without  a  feeling 
of  admiration  and  keen  sympathy  for  the  sturdy  stock 
that  has  for  so  many  years  taken  an  honorable  part 
in  the  life  of  this  town.  I  hope  Mr.  Francis  Flint  will 
say  a  few  words  as  its  representative. 


REMARKS   BY   MR.   FRANCIS   FLINT 

Mr.  President  :  I  rise  with  much  diffidence  to 
speak  of  my  ancestry  and  town,  yet  I  am  proud  of 
both.  We  trace  our  family  lineage  back  to  Thomas 
Flint,  who  came  over  from  Matlock,  in  Derbyshire, 
England,  about  1 63 6.  We  have  made  some  inquiries 
there  with  the  hope  of  tracing  our  genealogy  farther 
back,  but  without  success.  Possibly  it  may  be  just 
as  well,  for  I  once  heard  my  father  say  that  he  had 
never  heard  of  a  Flint's  being  hanged.  Matlock  is 
now  one  of  the  fine  watering-places  in  Old  England, 
and  a  relative  who  recently  visited  that  region  seemed 
at  a  loss  to  understand  what  could  have  induced 
"  Father  Thomas  "  to  leave  such  a  beautiful  spot, 
to  come  to  this  howling  wilderness.  I  suppose  the 
simple  answer  would  be.  He  was  a  Puritan.  Soon 
after  his  arrival  we  find  him  on  Governor  Winthrop's 
Council.  Later  he  moved  to  Concord,  where  he  died 
about  1653.  His  will  was  the  first  one  recorded  in 
the  Middlesex  County  Records  at  Cambridge.  His 
son  secured  a  large  tract  of  land,  over  seven  hundred 
acres,  including  Sandy  or  Flint  Pond.  This  tract 
doubtless  included  Lincoln  Centre  and  the  present 

173 


THE   TOWN    OF    LINCOLN 

Flint  homestead,  which,  /  think,  has  never  passed 
out  of  the  family  name  during  these  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years. 

If  you  ask  what  of  the  Flints  on  that  memorable 
day,  the  19th  of  April,  1775,  ^  simply  say  the  chron- 
icles of  the  family  inform  us  that  my  grandfather 
Ephraim,  then  about  thirty  years  old,  shouldered  his 
musket,  and  as  one  of  the  results  captured  a  British 
soldier  at  Lexington,  and  took  him  home  with  him, 
where  he  worked  some  time  on  the  farm  of  his  captor 
peacefully.  Later,  during  the  War  of  18 12,  General 
James  Miller  achieved  considerable  renown  at  the 
Battle  of  Lundy*s  Lane  on  the  Canadian  frontier. 
When  his  superior  asked  him  if  he  could  capture  a 
redoubt,  he  answered,  "  I  *11  try,  sir,"  and  accom- 
plished it.  He  married  my  father's  sister.  These 
are  our  military  achievements. 

In  the  records  I  find  very  little  desire  for  political 
honors  or  office.  Evidently  the  fact  that  "  Father 
Thomas "  was  on  Governor  Winthrop's  Council 
brought  sufficient  glory  to  several  generations.  I 
quieted  my  conscience  concerning  my  county  and 
city  duties  by  serving  one  term  on  the  jury  at  court, 
and  one  term  on  the  school  committee  of  the  city 
of  Cambridge.  In  this  hurried  sketch  I  have  not 
touched  upon  the  Bemis  side  of  our  ancestry,  partly 
because,  while  they  were  of  Puritan  stock,  their  an- 
cestor coming  to  Watertown  in  1640,  they  were  not 
connected  with  this  town  until  long  afterwards.  Of 
my  Uncle  George  F.  Bemis  I  need  not  speak  in 
this  building  or  to  this  company.    Of  my  mother  I 

174 


THE   BANQUET 

simply  say,  she  was  one  of  the  choicest  specimens 
of  lovely  Christian  motherhood  this  town  has  pro- 
duced, and  that  is  saying  a  good  deal.  Of  the  pass- 
ing generation,  it  is  perhaps  needless  for  me  to  speak 
in  this  presence.  Of  the  six  children  that  grew  up, 
only  three  remain,  and  we  have  all  passed  the  allotted 
term  of  threescore  years  and  ten.  We  were  required 
to  attend  church  and  Sunday-school  regularly,  and 
I  am  glad  of  it.  It  established  a  foundation  on  which 
after  life  was  more  safely  builded. 

Regarding  the  town,  it  is  certainly  a  good  thing  for 
children  to  have  a  pride  and  interest  in  the  place  of 
their  birth.  I  can  hardly  remember  the  time  when 
we  were  not  taught  that  Lincoln  was  a  fine  town.  It 
was  occasionally  called  in  my  boyhood  Niptown  to 
belittle  it.  But  on  a  public  occasion  one  of  our  witty 
young  men  translated  that  word  to  the  satisfaction 
of  us  all,  giving  as  a  toast  "  Niptown,  nipped  off 
the  best  end  of  three  or  four  other  towns." 

As  a  boy  I  was  proud  of  our  school  at  the  Centre. 
I  remember  one  fine  teacher  from  Harvard  College. 
He  taught  us  arithmetic,  algebra,  geometry,  only 
stopping  at  trigonometry  in  mathematics,  had  the 
boys  declaim  periodically,  and  closed  the  term  with 
an  exhibition  of  orations  and  dialogues  in  our  town- 
hall  to  a  crowded  house.  How  many  district  schools 
in  the  country  at  that  time  could  show  such  a 
record  ? 

In  my  class  in  mathematics  there  were  five  very 
bright  girls  and  one  boy,  and  though  it  was  my 
favorite  study,  yet  I  had  to  work  hard  to  keep  in 

175 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

sight  of  them  ;  and  you  may  remember,  some  of  you 
younger  men,  that  at  that  susceptible  age  the  sight  is 
of  much  account.  Four  of  those  five  girls  have  passed 
on.  Some  of  them  married  and  left  children  that  are 
an  honor  to  your  town. 

Now  a  word  of  your  future.  Possibly  you  will 
ere  long  bring  back  the  High  School  and  gather 
more  of  your  children  into  it,  even  if  it  raises  your 
tax  rate  a  fraction  of  a  dollar  from  |8  or  I9  per  thou- 
sand toward  the  ^17  or  $iS  per  thousand  that  we 
have  to  pay  in  Cambridge. 

As  to  temperance,  seemingly  you  are  fairly  safe 
if  the  late  reports  from  your  town  are  true  —  safer 
perhaps  than  in  my  early  boyhood,  when  Medford 
rum  and  molasses  was  the  favorite  tonic  with  some 
of  the  help. 

Your  Board  of  Selectmen  should  be  comparatively 
safe  while  you  have  a  Flint  on  it,  for  he  is  of  good 
old  Whig  descent,  and  you,  Mr.  President,  are  famil- 
iar with  that  product. 

Mr.  Storey. —  As  I  admired  Mr.  Baker's  aspara- 
gus, so  when  we  had  our  agricultural  fair  a  year  or 
two  ago  I  admired  Mr.  Farrar's  apples,  which  I  could 
not  help  comparing  with  my  own  inferior  fruit.  Nor 
was  I  encouraged  when  he  told  me  that  my  farm 
used  to  be  the  best  fruit  farm  in  the  county.  Degen- 
eracy is  not  a  thing  to  be  proud  of.  No  Lincoln  fes- 
tival would  be  complete  without  a  good  many  Farrars, 
and  I  am  sure  that  Mr.  E.  R.  Farrar  will  give  us 
some  reminiscences  that  will  interest  us  all. 

176 


THE   BANQUET 


REMARKS   BY   MR.   EDWARD    R.   FARRAR 

Mr.  Toastmaster  :  There  have  been  many 
changes  in  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  My  great- 
grandfather was  tithing-man  in  Lincoln,  and  it  was 
one  of  his  duties  to  stop  all  passers-by  on  the  Sab- 
bath, and  if  they  were  not  going  for  the  minister  or 
the  doctor,  they  were  turned  back.  We  may  not 
choose  to  follow  all  their  ideas.  They  served  their 
God  the  best  they  knew,  and  to  my  mind  that  was 
what  gave  strength  to  the  Puritan  character.  If  we 
wish  to  keep  up  the  credit  of  the  New  England 
character,  we  must  see  to  it  that  we  do  not  go  to  the 
other  extreme,  and  become  too  careless  in  the  ser- 
vice of  our  Lord,  or  in  the  keeping  of  his  Sabbath. 

I  feel  honored  that  my  ancestors  had  a  part  in  the 
settlement  of  the  town,  and  in  the  management  of 
its  affairs,  and  in  obtaining  the  independence  of  our 
country. 

My  wish  is  that  the  future  of  this  town  may  be 
such  that  it  will  be  an  honor  to  the  generations  that 
are  to  follow. 

Mr.  Storey.  —  The  town  of  Lincoln,  like  every 
other  Massachusetts  town,  has  owed  much  to  the 
ministers  who  have  lived  their  lives  here,  and  without 
large  salaries  or  the  fame  which  comes  to  those  who 
preach  in  great  cities  have  with  single-hearted  devo- 
tion given  themselves  to  the  work  which  here  as 
everywhere  has  waited  for  their  hands.  Among  them 

177 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

all  there  has  been  no  one  more  worthy  of  the  sincere 
respect  and  affection  with  which  we  regard  him  than 
Mr.  Bradley,  who  I  hope  will  speak  to  us. 


REMARKS   BY   REVEREND    EDWARD   E. 
BRADLEY 

Mr.  Toastmaster  and  Friends  :  I  want  to  add 
my  word  of  appreciation  to  those  already  spoken 
for  the  oration  of  the  afternoon.  Until  one  has  tried 
his  hand  at  it,  he  cannot  appreciate  how  great  a 
task  it  is  to  reconstruct  the  past  out  of  such  scanty 
materials  as  are  available  for  our  history.  Such  an 
address  as  this  represents  not  simply  the  special 
preparation  made  for  this  occasion,  but  years  of  labor 
devoted  to  similar  investigations  in  other  localities. 

Mr.  Adams  has  given  us  a  clear  picture  of  the 
economic  side  of  the  life  of  our  town,  and  I  know  of 
no  facts  that  contradict  those  that  he  has  brought 
before  us.  But  he  has  not  told  us  the  whole  story. 
There  is  a  good  deal  more  that  might  be  said  and 
that  ought  to  be  said  for  the  social  and  the  spiritual 
side  of  the  life  of  those  early  days.  I  had  occasion  a 
few  years  since  to  examine  the  records  of  the  church, 
and  I  read  all  the  documents  that  I  could  find  bear- 
ing on  its  history  both  in  its  own  records  and  in 
other  writings ;  and  I  found  there  facts  that  would 
go  far  to  relieve  the  monotonous  and  commonplace 
character  of  the  life  of  the  town  in  its  early  days  as 
it  was  set  before  us  this  afternoon.     I  found  there 

178 


Residence  of  Mr.  Julius  E.  Eveleth 


THE    BANQUET 

the  records  of  the  labors  of  the  six  ministers  of  the 
church,  all  of  them  equipped  with  the  best  learning 
of  the  time,  and  faithful  in  the  discharge  of  their 
office ;  while  the  fact  that  there  were  but  six  minis- 
ters here  during  a  period  of  one  hundred  and  forty- 
five  years  speaks  much  for  the  character  of  their 
ministry  as  well  as  for  the  character  of  the  people. 
Such  roads  as  there  were  then,  whether  highways  or 
cart-paths,  served  to  bring  the  people  to  church  on 
the  Sabbath  from  the  outskirts  of  the  town ;  and  if 
the  worship  of  the  Sabbath  was  the  principal  occa- 
sion for  bringing  the  people  together,  it  was  one  that 
was  faithfully  and  profitably  improved. 

We  were  reminded  in  the  anniversary  ode  that  was 
read  this  afternoon,  and  also  in  the  Governor's  re- 
marks this  evening,  of  the  farmer  patriots  of  our  early 
history,  the  minute-men  who  were  ready  to  take  up 
arms  and  go  forth  at  a  moment's  notice  to  defend 
their  homes.  They  were  men  of  sturdy  character 
and  unflinching  courage ;  we  were  brought  up  to 
venerate  them,  and  I  hope  the  day  is  far  distant  when 
we  shall  cease  to  do  so.  The  spirit  and  the  manly 
bearing  of  the  minute-man  have  been  finely  pre- 
served for  us  in  bronze  in  the  statue  at  the  bridge 
in  Concord  and  in  the,  if  possible,  more  virile  fig- 
ure of  Captain  Parker  in  Lexington.  But  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  say  that  we  in  Lincoln  have  seen  a  finer 
representation  of  the  spirit  of  the  minute-man  than 
either  Mr.  French  or  Mr.  Kitson  has  given  us,  for  we 
have  seen  it  in  life,  in  flesh  and  blood.  I  believe  that 
you  will  agree  with  me  when  I  say  that  the  spirit  of 

179 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

the  minute-man  has  been  reproduced  in  a  remarkable 
degree  in  the  life  of  one  whom  we  ourselves  have 
known,  the  lamented  James  Farrar,  who  died  just 
ten  years  ago  the  seventeenth  day  of  next  month. 

Most  of  us  who  are  here  to-night  remember  well 
the  situation  of  our  town  ten  years  ago,  and  the  feel- 
ing of  uneasiness  that  was  abroad  because  of  the 
midnight  visits  of  a  burglar.  Many  of  our  homes 
had  been  visited  by  him,  and  the  rest  of  us  felt  that 
our  turn  might  come  at  any  time.  It  was  not  a  very 
pleasant  frame  of  mind  to  be  in.  Men  were  anxious, 
women  were  timid.  It  was  to  bring  such  a  condition 
of  things  to  an  end  that  James  Farrar  sacrificed  his 
life.  I  never  could  reconcile  myself  to  his  going 
unarmed  in  pursuit  of  a  man  who,  he  might  have 
known,  was  armed  and  prepared  to  kill.  But  bar- 
ring that,  no  one  can  admire  too  highly  the  fidelity 
and  the  courage  shown  by  him  in  seeking  to  bring 
this  man  to  justice.  As  Attorney-General  Knowlton 
said  at  the  time,  "  Never  bullet  sped  to  cleaner, 
braver,  truer  heart."  He  was  a  man  of  as  near  spot- 
less character  as  it  is  our  fortune  often  to  see.  He 
took  an  active  part  in  the  life  of  the  town,  both  as  a 
citizen  and  as  a  public  official.  He  was  a  leader  in 
his  own  neighborhood  in  all  matters,  whether  reli- 
gious, social,  or  athletic.  Yet  at  all  times  and  in  all 
places  he  kept  himself  unspotted  from  the  world.  I 
do  not  desire,  I  do  not  need  to  enlarge  upon  his 
virtues ;  I  desire  but  to  recall  him  to  your  minds 
at  this  time,  and  to  pay  my  tribute  of  respect  and 
affection  to  his  memory.     He   has  gone  from    us, 

1 80 


THE   BANQUET 

but  he  belongs  still  to  us ;  for  his  name  is  upon 
the  roll  of  those  who  have  given  their  lives  for  the 
town. 

Mr.  Storey.  —  For  the  first  time  in  ninety  years 
Concord  has  celebrated  her  anniversary  this  week 
without  the  aid  that  she  has  learned  to  expect  from 
the  family  of  Hoar.  The  sudden  and  premature 
death  of  Samuel  Hoar,  which  has  saddened  the  whole 
town  of  Concord  and  left  a  heartache  in  the  breast 
of  many  a  friend  outside,  has  robbed  us  of  two  guests, 
for  we  had  hoped  that  both  he  and  his  uncle  might 
come  to  speak  for  the  ancient  line  which  was  cradled 
in  this  town.  Let  us  assure  our  senator,  whose  life 
has  lately  been  clouded  by  great  affliction  which  he 
might  well  have  hoped  to  be  spared,  that  the  citizens 
of  this  town  have  not  forgotten  him  or  his  family,  and 
that  they  feel  the  warmest  sympathy  for  them  all. 

It  is  well  at  least  once  in  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  that  our  vanity  should  be  chastened  by  hear- 
ing the  candid  opinion  of  some  impartial  neighbor. 
There  was  a  time  when  Lincoln  would  have  found 
it  hard  to  discover  such  a  critic,  since  the  neighbor- 
ing towns,  out  of  whose  flesh  she  was  carved,  did  not 
regard  the  process  with  entire  approval,  and  town 
division  has  never  been  popular  since.  I  hope,  how- 
ever, that  time  has  healed  the  wound  and  that  I 
may  safely  run  the  risk  of  asking  a  word  from  Con- 
cord, for  whom  surely  no  one  has  a  better  right  to 
speak  than  one  whose  name  is  forever  associated 
with  it,  my  friend  Mr.  Emerson. 

i8i 


THE  TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 


REMARKS   BY   DR.   EDWARD   WALDO 
EMERSON 

Mr.  Chairman,  Friends  and  Neighbors:  I 
have  been  asked  to  answer  for  Concord  here  to-night, 
and  I  do  not  feel  abashed,  for  am  I  not  still  at 
home?  Is  not  this  a  part  of  Old  Concord  ?  It  surely 
was  so  in  its  beginnings  and  thereafter  for  one  hun- 
dred and  nine  years ;  then,  for  ten  years,  Concord's 
second  precinct  before  the  final  separation,  simply  for 
convenience'  sake. 

These  dwellers  on  the  eastern  hills  of  Old  Con- 
cord apparently  always  showed  a  marked  independ- 
ence. Their  elevation  seems  to  have  made  them 
overlook  trifles  such  as  the  people  in  the  neighboring 
plain  minded,  for  in  1751  the  church  in  Lincoln,  but 
newly  established,  voted  to  admit  all  persons  who 
may  be  dismissed  from  the  church  at  Concord.  I 
have  always  felt  glad  to  know  that  this  asylum  was 
open  in  case  of  need.  This  same  independence  of 
thought  —  upward  tendency,  shall  I  say  ?  —  influ- 
enced your  people  in  things  physical,  for  later  they 
held  that  water  could  better,  or  had  better,  run 
uphill. 

But  however,  on  common  days,  a  healthy  independ- 
ence has  held  the  mother  and  daughter  towns  apart, 
they  have  never  forgotten  their  blood  relationship  in 
time  of  trouble.  We  know  that  our  common  ances- 
tors were  comrades  in  the  defence  of  eastern  Mas- 
sachusetts in  King  Philip's  War,  and  in  the   next 

182 


THE   BANQUET 

century  fought  together  against  the  French  and 
Indians.  On  the  great  Nineteenth  of  April  blood 
proved  thicker  than  water,  when  our  first  help  in 
dire  extremity  came  from  Lincoln.  Your  Captain 
Eleazer  Brooks,  wisely  brave,  gave  timely  counsel 
when  some,  more  brave  than  experienced,  urged  that 
the  handful  of  minute-men  should  abide  the  issue 
of  fight  with  eight  hundred  regulars  on  the  Common, 
—  which  could  only  have  resulted  in  another  massa- 
cre like  that  in  Lexington,  —  and  thus  influenced 
the  happy  outcome  of  the  day  by  causing  the  with- 
drawal of  the  Provincial  force  to  Buttrick*s  Hill,  to 
wait  the  arrival  of  an  adequate  force.  This  was  a 
service  of  vital  importance. 

In  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  three  Lincoln  men 
went  in  Captain  Prescott's  company  in  April,  1861, 
four  in  Captain  Barrett's  company  of  the  47th  Regi- 
ment, M.  V.  M.,  five  more  were  furnished  by  this 
town  to  the  three  years'  companies  of  Captains  Pres- 
cott  and  Bowers  of  the  3 2d  Regiment.  During  the 
last  fifteen  years  of  the  past  century  the  "  Concord 
Artillery,"  then  Company  I,  6th  Regiment,  M.  V. 
M.,  had  your  young  men  in  its  ranks,  and  when  the 
war  with  Spain  broke  out  you  furnished  us  a  good 
officer  and  three  men."  Thus,  in  five  wars,  the  youth 
of  these  hills  have  done  service  shoulder  to  shoulder 
with  their  neighbors  of  the  plain. 

Possibly  in  this  connection  I  ought  to  recognize 
the  services  of  a  small  but  select  body  of  cavalry,  in 

I  A  fifth  man  from  the  town  enlisted  in  the  U.  S.  Volunteer  Bat- 
talion of  Engineers. 

183 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

uniform  now  green,  now  red,  who,  moved  by  know- 
ledge which  we  have  not  of  some  secret  foe  which 
infests  our  borders  —  what  he  is  like  we  can*t  guess, 
but  he  leaves  a  scent  of  anise  or  paregoric  —  have 
lately  ridden  into  Concord  to  hunt  him,  at  some  dan- 
ger to  their  lives  and  limbs. 

1  have  spoken  of  Lincoln's  sharing  with  Concord 
the  perils  of  war,  but  the  old  town  owes  much  to  her  in 
peace.  I  have  told  what  one  of  your  Brooks  family 
did  for  us  on  a  day  of  battle,  but  through  the  nine- 
teenth century  that  name  did  honor  to  Concord  in  the 
persons  of  a  father  and  son,  respected  and  loved,  — 
the  Squire  and  the  Judge.  The  son,  the  grandsons, 
and  the  great-grandsons  of  your  Samuel  Hoar  of  the 
days  of  the  Revolution  have  been  our  strength  and 
our  pride  for  nearly  a  hundred  years.  The  race  of 
Wheeler  has  brought  up  the  average  of  good  citizen- 
ship in  both  towns,  and  fortunately  is  not  failing  in 
the  land.  Though  the  Farrars  mainly  hold  by  Lin- 
coln, they  worship  in  Concord,  and  one  of  that  name 
dwells  among  us,  and  quietly  puts  us  to  bed  when 
our  days*  works  are  all  done.  Let  me  pay  a  tribute  in 
passing  to  some  Lincoln  men  who  are  gone  :  to  the 
brave  young  man  who,  losing  his  life,  freed  us  from 
midnight  danger  and  loss;  to  my  old  schoolmate. 
Dr.  George  Tarbell,  a  good  doctor  and  devoted  ser- 
vant of  good  causes ;  to  the  memory  of  your  scholar, 
Stearns  Wheeler,  from  whose  young  promise  my  father 
and  his  friend  Henry  Thoreau  hoped  so  much. 

May  I  lay  claim  to  personal  relation  with  Lincoln, 
for  I  lived  here  through  two  pleasant  summers  ?  I 

184 


THE   BANaUET 

say  here^  but  part  of  the  house  was  in  Lincoln  and  part 
in  Wayland ;  the  line  ran  through  the  dining-table. 
So  in  case  of  emergency  I  could  have  fled  from  your 
jurisdiction  to  its  other  side.  Your  farmer  constable, 
Mr.  Sam  Farrar,  called,  but  in  his  kindness  of  heart 
kept  his  weapons  of  office  concealed,  and  talked 
pleasantly  of  flowers. 

Now  I  believe  you  will  allow  me  to  say  a  word,  at 
the  beginning  of  a  new  chapter  of  Lincoln^s  life,  and 
I  believe  it  will  be  taken  kindly  from  a  neighbor,  for 
it  is  on  a  subject  which  has  come  very  near  to  us  both; 
but  Concord  has  had  to  deal  with  it  for  a  quarter  of 
a  century,  and  you  only  for  a  few  years. 

Both  towns  were,  until  lately,  almost  purely  agri- 
cultural, and  their  people  within  my  recollection  used 
to  lead  the  simple  lives  such  as  Mr.  Baker  has  de- 
scribed, mainly  within  their  own  borders,  though  each 
had  one  or  more  ministers,  doctors  and  lawyers  and  a 
few  traders,  and  the  farmers  went  to  the  city  with  their 
produce.  Now  the  railroad  and  the  crowding  of 
the  cities  has  changed  that.  Both  of  our  towns  are 
becoming  more  and  more  suburban. 

Naturally  when  new  names  and  new  ways  come 
into  old  towns  there  is  a  temporary  dislocation  felt  by 
both  parties.  The  old  residents  who  value  and  con- 
tinue the  ways  and  standards  of  their  ancestors  may 
be  anxious  and  disturbed.  The  newcomers,  brought 
up  under  different  conditions,  may  not  be  quite  pre- 
pared to  live  on  old-time  country  principles.  We 
felt  this  in  our  town,  as  doubtless  you  do  here.  Now 
because  we  went  through  all  this,  —  as  you  are  doing 

185 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

now, — and  seem  to  be  coming  through  pretty  well, 
I  trust  to  your  good  nature  to  let  me  say  a  few  words 
to  the  new  and  the  old  elements  :  first,  to  the  old 
stock.  We  found  that  the  new  infusion,  coming  in, 
as  it  did  gradually  enough  to  be  assimilated,  did  us 
good.  In  loyal  pride  in  the  town,  and  in  zealous 
and  unpaid  service  of  her  interests,  many  of  the  new- 
comers have  vied  with  the  best  of  the  old  leaders. 
More  than  that,  they  have  waked  us  up  and  con- 
tributed good  ideas  and  methods.  Most  of  them  have 
honored  the  best  standards  of  the  old  town,  yet  these 
must  grow  and  broaden  with  that  growth.  So  give 
the  newcomers  a  welcome  and  a  chance. 

Now  to  the  new  settlers  may  I  say.  Do  not  come 
to  Lincoln  to  enjoy  its  quiet,  its  air,  and  its  scenery, 
and  lead  your  lives  apart  from  it.  Live  in  a  simple 
country  town  in  simple  country  ways,  and  don't  spoil 
the  place  by  enhancing  class  distinctions  and  living 
in  a  style  which  may  make  your  neighbors  uncom- 
fortable. There  are  many  wholesome  lessons  to  be 
learned  from  a  fine  independent  old  New  England 
village,  —  to  simplify  life  and  so  have  more  time  for 
real  living,  to  serve  yourselves  more,  and  to  come 
into  sound  and  helpful  touch  with  town  affairs. 
Learn  the  sweetness  of  good  neighborhood. 

Ten  years  ago  I  visited  the  beautiful  Lincoln 
which,  high  on  its  hill,  looks  over  the  lowlands  on 
'England's  eastern  coast.  The  high  towers  of  the 
Cathedral  have  many  grotesques  carved  in  stone  by 
the  old  monks,  and  from  one  of  them  came  the 
proverb  "  The  Devil  looks  over  Lincoln.'*    But  we 

i86 


THE    BANQUET 

here  will  believe  that,  in  his  mischievous  walks  on 
earth,  the  Devil  overlooks  Lincoln. 

Mr.  Storey. —  As  a  young  citizen  I  feel  the  need 
of  support  from  men  approaching  my  own  age,  and 
I  shall  therefore  ask  my  senior  by  some  years,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  DeNormandie,  to  tell  us  how  he  has  suc- 
ceeded as  a  Lincoln  farmer,  and  why  it  is  that  incu- 
bators select  the  most  inconvenient  moments  to  ex- 
plode. When  I  think  how  suddenly  one's  hopes  are 
blighted  by  such  a  calamity,  I  can  think  of  nothing 
more  closely  approaching  the  reaction  than  the  expe- 
rience of  the  man  who  was  asked  why  his  legs  were 
bowed  and  replied,  "  I  went  up  in  a  balloon  and 
walked  back." 


REMARKS   BY 
REV.   JAMES   DeNORMANDIE,   D.  D. 

Mr.  President:  I  am  much  gratified  to  be  re- 
garded as  enough  of  a  citizen  of  Lincoln  to  be  in- 
vited to  this  interesting  anniversary,  and  to  be  asked 
to  say  a  word  at  this  banquet. 

Some  strange  fatality  has  steadily  beset  my  en- 
deavor to  live  a  part  of  the  year  among  you,  but  I 
trust  year  by  year  that  whatever  has  prevented  may 
be  removed,  and  that  before  long  the  time  may 
come  when  I  can  really  be  one  of  your  townsmen. 

I  am  not  sure,  sir,  that  I  have  in  my  nature  any 
spirit  of  envy  or  jealousy.   I  am  not  sure  that  I  know 

187 


THE  TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

of  any  one  whose  lot  I  envy.  I  envy  no  man  his 
wealth.  I  envy  no  man  his  public  position.  I  might 
perhaps  at  times  have  a  passing  wish  that  I  might 
have  the  intellectual  gifts  of  some  to  whom  I  have 
listened  ;  that  I  might  have  been  the  discoverer  or 
inventor  of  some  helpful  thing  for  humanity  ;  that  I 
might,  for  example,  have  the  gift  of  our  distinguished 
historian  to-day,  to  take  the  dry  facts  of  a  century 
and  a  half,  and  weave  them  into  such  an  attractive 
form,  uniting  the  wisdom  of  a  statesman  to  the  faith 
of  a  prophet.  I  might  be  forgiven,  perhaps,  if  I  had 
just  a  passing  shadow  of  disappointment  that  he 
should  have  so  much  larger  a  congregation  than 
we  ministers  do  when  we  preach  in  the  Lincoln 
churches,  or  for  indulging  in  the  reflection  that  if 
Mr.  Adams  were  now  announced  to  speak  to-mor- 
row, he  might  have  even  a  larger  congregation  than 
to-day.  I  might  have  a  momentary  feeling  of  envy 
in  thinking  of  all  the  strong  words  that  you,  sir,  have 
uttered  in  defence  of  the  lofty  ideals  of  our  republic. 
But  I  believe  I  am  without  envy  —  and  yet,  if  I 
had  the  spirit,  there  are  two  classes  I  can  think  of 
toward  whom  I  might  show  it.  One  is  the  persons 
who  can,  without  haste,  or  anxiety,  or  pressure,  or 
nervousness,  quietly  get  up  on  Sunday  morning  and 
go  to  church.  That  is  something  of  which  we  min- 
isters know  nothing.  If  I  ever  have  an  opportunity 
to  worship  out  of  the  pulpit,  I  feel  how  helpful, 
how  delightful  it  is,  and  wonder  every  one  does  not 
long  to  go  to  church.  It  is  only  when  I  am  in  the 
pulpit  that  I  sometimes  wonder  why  so  many  go. 

i88 


THE   BANQUET 

The  other  is  the  persons  who  can  escape  from  the 
confusion  of  the  great  city*s  life  to  the  charms  of  a 
life  in  the  country.  Think  of  it :  to  be  aroused  every 
morning  by  five  or  six  o'clock  by  the  shouts  or  bells 
of  the  hucksters  which  cease  not  until  ten  at 
night;  of"  fresh  mackerel,"  which  have  known  no- 
thing of  their  native  element  for  the  last  fortnight ; 
of  "  fresh  vegetables/*  which  have  been  a  week  on 
the  way  from  the  South,  and  another  week  on  their 
slow  journey  through  all  the  dirty  and  dusty  streets 
of  the  city  ;  of  the  three  grades  of  eggs  so  plainly 
advertised  at  all  the  grocery  stores  —  "  strictly  fresh 
eggs,"  "  fresh  eggs,"  and  "  eggs  "  —  and  if  the  first 
means  any  eggs  laid  within  the  present  year,  what 
must  the  last  be  ?  Really,  sir,  I  think  that  most  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  city  have  lost  the  power  to  dis- 
tinguish what  anything  fresh  means.  And  then  to 
think  of  escaping  from  all  these  —  from  the  dust  and 
smells,  and  tumult  and  selfishness,  and  harshness  and 
unsympathizing  crowd  —  to  the  quiet  restfulness 
and  sweet  odors  of  our  Lincoln  air  and  our  Lincoln 
scenes,  the  voices  of  our  Lincoln  birds,  the  silence  of 
our  woods,  the  promise  of  our  fruitful  fields,  is  like  en- 
tering into  the  joy  and  peace  of  the  Island  of  the  Blest. 

I  always  like  to  recall  the  correspondence  between 
Adams  and  Jefferson  in  the  closing  year  of  their 
life,  when  the  animosities  of  politics  were  burned 
out  and  these  two  statesmen  of  our  heroic  age  wrote 
about  their  religious  views  and  their  literary  tastes, 
—  it  seems  to  me  about  the  most  beautiful  thing  in 
American  literature  ;  and  I  like  to  recall  what  Jeffer- 

189 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

son  used  to  say  of  his  life  at  Monticello,  when  his 
writings  are  interspersed  with  remarks  about  his 
fields  and  his  crops,  his  clover,  and  wheat,  and  flow- 
ers, and  his  holding  to  the  view  "  that  those  who 
labor  in  the  earth  are  the  chosen  people  of  God." 

There  is  a  charm  and  a  helpfulness  about  a  life 
closer  to  nature,  and  amidst  her  great  movements, 
which  the  city  cannot  give :  you  are  oppressed  and 
burdened,  you  are  overwhelmed  by  your  perplexities 
and  mysteries  ;  you  think  no  one  can  have  such  a 
hard  lot  as  yours  ;  life  seems  more  than  you  can  bear ; 
and  how  you  are  steadied  and  calmed  by  the  silent 
and  mighty  processes  of  nature !  The  stars  which  look 
down  upon  you  so  peacefully ;  the  undisturbed 
revolution  of  the  seasons  ;  the  swelling  buds  of  these 
spring  days  ;  the  great  trees  which  boast  not  of  their 
strength  ;  the  vines  which  cling  so  tenderly  around 
them  ;  the  grateful  shade  of  the  forest ;  the  earth 
which  never  forgets  to  return  its  harvests ;  the  tiny 
seeds  growing  to  massive  proportions  of  plant  and 
tree,  —  what  never-ceasing  delight,  what  quiet  as- 
surance of  some  Overguiding  Power  and  Care  and 
Love,  what  serenity,  what  courage,  does  it  all  give. 
"  Nothing  for  me  is  too  early  nor  too  late  which  is 
in  due  time  for  thee,  O  Universe,"  said  the  ancient 
philosopher.  I  would  say,  just  altering  a  little  the 
words  of  Kipling  : 

"  God  gave  all  men  all  earth  to  love. 
But  since  man's  heart  is  small. 
Ordains  for  each  one  spot  shall  prove 
Beloved  over  all. 

190 


THE   BANQUET 

^  Each  to  his  choice,  but  I  rejoice 

The  lot  has  fallen  to  me 
In  a  fair  ground,  in  a  fair  ground 
In  Lincoln  with  its  beauty.** 

Mr.  Storey.  —  Dr.  DeNormandie,  I  suspect,  is 
not  really  so  young  as  he  looks  and  feels,  so  I  am 
going  to  call  upon  one  whom  both  he  and  I  know 
to  be  really  young,  and  yet  who  has  long  and  de- 
lightful associations  with  Lincoln  inherited  from  his 
father,  who  was  for  so  many  years  a  well-known  and 
much  respected  man  among  you,  Mr.  George  C. 
Hodges. 


REMARKS   BY   GEORGE   CLARENDON 
HODGES,  ESQ. 

Mr.  Toastmaster,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen  : 
The  phrase  in  which  you  asked  me  to  come  here 
to-night  and  say  a  good  word  for  the  town  betrayed 
the  newness  of  your  conversion.  Sir  —  had  you 
been  an  older  story  in  Lincoln  you  would  have 
known  that  no  one  could  or  would  dare  say  aught 
but  a  good  word  for  her.  It  is  true  that  we  fight 
one  another  joyously  and  happily,  —  that  is  a  family 
privilege,  —  but  let  any  one  attack  the  town,  and 
our  personal  engagements  are  suspended  until  the 
common  enemy  is  routed. 

Evidences  of  that  loyalty  you  will  see  all  about 
you,  in  the  Public  Library,  the  church,  this  very 
hall,  and  in  the  scholarship  at  Harvard  College  to 

191 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

which  Lincoln's  sons  have  always  the  preference^ — 
all  the  gifts  of  her  loving  children.  And  a  like 
spirit  is  found  in  a  charge  upon  the  town  seal,  of  the 
old  chestnut-tree  under  which  her  boys  and  girls 
have  grown  to  usefulness  and  maturity. 

And  so  conservative  are  we,  so  adherent  to  sound 
tradition  and  precedent,  that  we  maintain  one  heredi- 
tary office,  that  of  clerk,  and  the  annals  of  the  town 
for  sixty  years  have  been  and  are  the  records  of  one 
family.  How  well  we  all  remember  —  those  of  us, 
that  is,  not  too  hopelessly  young  in  years  or  resi- 
dence to  remember  anything — the  first  incumbent 
of  the  office  from  that  family,  —  the  dear  old  doctor. 
It  is  safe  to  say  that  no  consideration  of  selfishness 
ever  influenced  an  act  of  his  life  among  us.  Through 
his  "  long  days  of  labor  and  nights  devoid  of  ease  " 
his  friendly  services  and  great  skill  were  always  at 
the  command  of  the  poor  and  needy  not  only  of  his 
own  town  but  also  of  the  whole  county.  And  so 
great  was  his  skill,  so  devoted  his  attention,  that  a 
leading  member  of  his  own  profession,  speaking  of 
his  death,  said :  "  Middlesex  County  has  lost  the 
best  family  physician  I  ever  knew.'*  It  is  but  a 
small  tribute  to  his  memory  that  we  thus  refer  to 
him  in  our  day  of  celebration,  but  we  do  so  for  our 
own  sake.  Lincoln's  Hst  of  benefactors  were  sadly 
incomplete  without  the  name  of  Dr.  Chapin. 

Yet  do  not  think  that  our  conservatism  and  pride 
amount  to  self-sufficiency  —  we  have  heard  that 
there  are  other  counties  almost  as  good,  other  towns 
nearly  as  wholesome,  other  people  quite  as  wise. 

192 


Residence  of  Messrs.  Francis  and  Charles  S,  Smith 
(P-  227) 


mm 


THE   BANQUET 

All  we  do  claim  is  foresight.  When  we  were  getting 
ready  to  disclose  our  age  and  then  boast  about  it, 
we  looked  over  the  field,  descended  into  Norfolk 
County,  and  annexed  and  made  our  very  own  the 
best  she  had,  and,  as  a  result,  we  have  carried  off  a 
most  successful  celebration  without  the  help  of  any 
outsiders  —  any  outsiders,  I  say,  for  His  Excellency 
the  Governor  is  the  property  of  the  whole  Com- 
monwealth and  has  a  home  in  every  town  within  its 
JDorders. 

Mr.  Storey.  —  And  now  it  is  time  that  this  part 
of  our  festival  was  over,  and  that  the  real  questions 
of  the  day  should  begin,  for  we  all  hope  that  the 
young  people,  upon  whom  the  hopes  of  the  town 
for  the  next  century  rest,  will  have  only  the  plea- 
santest  memories  of  the  town,  whether  on  its  birth- 
days or  any  other,  and  may  never  associate  a  thought 
of  tedium  with  any  of  its  celebrations. 

By  virtue  of  the  authority  in  me  vested,  I  now 
declare  this  session  adjourned  to  meet  again  in  this 
hall  after  a  decent  interval,  and  to  dance  the  new 
century  in. 


LETTERS 


LETTERS 

From   MR.   LEWIS   E.   SMITH 

MooRFiELD  Storey,  Esq., 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  the  pleasure  to  receive  a  note 
from  you,  representing  the  committee  for  cele- 
brating the  one  hundred  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
town  of  Lincoln,  requesting  me  to  say  a  few  words 
at  the  dinner  as  the  representative  of  the  Brooks 
family.  Regretting  not  being  able  to  be  present,  I 
send  a  few  notes  which  I  hope  may  be  suited  to  the 
occasion. 

These  items  of  history  were  received  from  my 
grandfather,  Colonel  Daniel  Brooks,  in  the  home  of 
my  early  years.  He  was  descended  in  direct  line  from 
Joshua,  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Concord,  through 
Daniel,  Job,  and  John. 

He  went  to  Concord  on  the  morning  of  the  19th 
of  April,  1775,  being  a  lad  of  fourteen  years,  saw  the 
British  soldiers  cut  down  the  flagstaff  of  the  Pro- 
vincials, watched  the  progress  of  events,  and  saw  the 
beginning  of  the  hasty  retreat.  Two  years  after,  at 
the  age  of  sixteen,  he  enlisted  in  the  Continental 
Army  and  served  a  long  term.  The  money  received 
for  this  service  he  invested  in  a  wood-lot  of  six  acres, 
on  the  east  side  of  Sandy  Pond,  which  is  now  owned 
by  his  granddaughter,  Mrs.  James  L.  Chapin. 

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THE   TOWN  OF    LINCOLN 

In  1 812  he  was  captain  of  the  Lincoln  militia  com- 
pany, and  afterwards  he  was  colonel  of  the  Middle- 
sex militia.  The  town  records  show  the  offices  he 
held  in  which  he  was  associated  with  the  ancestors 
of  President  Garfield.  The  town  of  Lincoln  proudly 
honors  his  memory  on  Decoration  Day. 

The  town  of  Concord,  from  which  Lincoln  was 
taken  in  1754,  is  said  to  be  the  oldest  inland  town  in 
America.  The  Brookses  were  among  the  first  settlers. 
Tradition  says  they  spent  the  first  winter  in  houses 
or  caves  dug  into  the  long  hill  which  bordered  the 
great  road  to  Lexington,  since  a  noted  place,  as  here 
the  Concord  grape  originated,  or  was  developed  by 
Mr.  Bull.  Here  Bronson  Alcott  lived  while  in  Con- 
cord. The  building  of  the  Concord  School  of  Phi- 
losophy was  above  on  the  hill,  and  the  home  of 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  was  scarce  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  distant. 

From  these  settlers  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution 
were  descended  fourteen  families  of  Brookses,  who 
lived  on  farms  in  the  north  part  of  Lincoln  with 
but  few  other  names  among  them,  so  the  wife  was 
called  Mrs.  with  the  first  name  of  her  husband,  the 
name  Brooks  being  considered  superfluous. 

The  Brooks  tavern,  on  the  site  of  the  present  resi- 
dence of  Mr.  Samuel  Hartwell,  was  the  centre  of 
the  Brooks  village,  all  the  families  being  not  more 
than  a  half  mile  distant.  In  the  decade  from  1835 
to  1 845  the  writer  recollects  the  heads  of  ten  families 
then  living,  whose  Bible  names  indicate  their  stanch 
Puritan  origin,  —  Aaron,  Asa,  Daniel,  Eleazar,  In- 

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crease,  Isaac,  Job,  Joshua,  Thomas,  Timothy.  With 
these  we  record  the  names  of  the  distinguished  law- 
yers living  in  Concord,  Nathan  Brooks  and  his  son 
George  M.  Brooks. 

In  the  time  of  these  men  the  Brooks  village  was 
a  place  of  business  importance.  A  large  tannery 
and  a  currier's  shop  gave  employment  to  many 
hands.  The  Brooks  tavern,  being  on  the  thorough- 
fare from  Boston  called  the  Great  Road,  is  said  to 
have  had  the  largest  patronage  of  any  hostelry  out  of 
Boston.  Its  large  stables,  covered  driveways,  sheds 
and  buildings  of  great  variety,  made  a  picture  which 
would  be  a  choice  one  for  a  modern  photographer. 

Passing  the  old  North  Schoolhouse,  which  then 
welcomed  within  its  brick  walls  between  50  and  60 
scholars,  were  to  be  seen,  at  nearly  all  hours  of  the 
day,  large  teams  of  six  and  eight  horses,  innumerable 
wagons  and  carriages.  In  the  winter  a  score  or  more 
of  two-horse  pungs  from  Vermont  or  New  Hamp- 
shire often  made  the  journey  together.  The  four- 
horse  mail  stage,  with  Boston,  Keene,  Brattleboro, 
and  U.  S.  M.  inscribed  in  large  letters,  represented 
the  transportation  of  those  times. 

Monday  was  cattle  market  day  at  Brighton. 
The  latter  part  of  each  week  the  fields  were  filled 
with  droves  of  horned  cattle,  sheep  and  swine,  and 
occasionally  might  be  seen  on  the  road  50  or  75 
horses  in  pairs  attached  to  a  rope  between  them.  In 
short,  this  road  represented  the  transportation  which 
now  belongs  to  the  Fitchburg  Railroad,  not  then 
built. 

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THE   TOWN    OF   LINCOLN 

At  the  present  a  few  persons  remain  in  the  north 
part  of  Lincoln  to  represent  the  name  of  Brooks. 
Most  of  the  descendants  are  scattered  in  the  great 
West,  where  many  have  occupied  positions  of  honor 
and  usefulness.  Some  have  served  the  country  with 
distinction  in  the  civil  war.  It  would  be  a  pleasure 
to  recount  their  successes  did  time  permit.  We  may 
be  sure  that  all  are  proud  of  their  Concord  and 
Lincoln  ancestry,  whose  history  is  replete  with  in- 
teresting reminiscences  and  praiseworthy  incidents. 

Lewis  E.  Smith, 
Grandson  of  Colonel  Daniel  Brooks. 
Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  April  i8,  1904. 

From   EDWIN    M.   STEARNS 

WiNTHROP,  April  21,  1904. 

MooRFiELD  Storey,  Esq., 

AND  Citizens  of  Lincoln  : 
Deeply  I  regret  that  bodily  infirmities  may  prevent 
my  attendance  at  the  anniversary  celebration  on  the 
23d  inst.  English  history  informs  us  that  the  por- 
tion of  Britain  between  the  Wash  and  the  Hum- 
ber,  from  whence  came  the  pioneers  of  Lincoln,  was 
wrested  from  the  Britons  and  permanently  occupied 
by  the  Teutonic  tribe  of  Engs  or  Engles  ;  hence  they 
were  of  strictly  English  origin.  Hence,  also,  the  real 
significance  and  true  pronunciation  of  Eng-land,  so 
perversely  spoken  Ingglund  by  the  English  people, 
who  to  this  day  mispronounce  St.  Johns  as  Sinjins,  and 
commit  many  similar  linguistic  offences.  That,  in  their 

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LETTERS 

evolutionary  struggles  with  the  atrocious  orthography 
and  pronunciation  of  Old  Eng-land,  and  with  the 
rugged  rocks  and  erratic  climate  of  New  Eng-land, 
they  came  out  intelligent  and  stalwart  Yankees  re- 
dounds immensely  to  their  credit,  and  speaks  vol- 
umes for  their  endurance. 

They  appear  to  have  been  a  hardy,  industrious, 
frugal,  thriving  people,  and  to  have  transmitted  these 
qualities  to  their  numerous  descendants,  their  fami- 
lies averaging  from  eight  to  ten  children.  By  the  time 
that  incorporation  seemed  desirable,  they  must  have 
been  in  comfortable  circumstances,  and  able  to  assume 
municipal  responsibilities. 

My  Lincoln  pedigree  on  the  paternal  side  begins 
with  my  grandfather.  Rev.  Charles  Stearns,  D.  D., 
who  commenced  preaching  there  in  1780,  continuing 
until  his  death  in  1826.  Opportunely,  his  ministry 
occurred  at  a  period  when  the  entire  town  was  his 
parish,  and  every  man  was  taxed  to  support  the 
minister,  and  when  everybody  went  to  church  twice 
on  Sunday;  also,  when  such  "divinity  did  hedge" 
a  Doctor  of  Divinity  that  his  presence  was  consid- 
ered a  benediction,  and  his  utterances  oracular.  As 
he  died  before  I  was  two  years  old,  the  only  remi- 
niscence of  him  that  I  am  able  to  relate  was  his  re- 
ported saying  to  my  mother,  "  I  thank  you  for  that 
beautiful  child."  Much  of  my  boyhood  having 
passed  among  his  surviving  contemporaries,  I  well 
remember  the  reverence  and  esteem  with  which  his 
memory  was  cherished. 

Although  prominent  among  the  preachers  of  his 
201 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

time  and  venerated  by  his  parishioners,  it  was  equally 
as  a  scholar,  scientist,  founder,  and  preceptor  of  the 
private  literary  and  dramatic  school  which  he  con- 
ducted with  great  success  for  several  years,  also  be- 
cause of  his  fitting  so  many  young  men  for  college, 
that  Dr.  Stearns  left  so  permanent  an  impress  upon 
the  social  atmosphere  of  Lincoln.  His  advent  in 
Lincoln  inaugurated  an  era  of  intelligence  equally 
potent  with  the  material  epoch  coincident  with  the 
completion  of  the  railroad.  It  may  be  of  interest  to 
note  in  this  connection  that,  as  he  was  born  in  1753 
and  died  in  1826,  and  I  was  born  in  1825,  the  sum 
of  our  ages  thus  overlapping  covers  the  entire  one 
hundred  fifty  years  of  Lincoln's  corporate  existence. 
If,  apparently,  the  following  phase  of  clerical  life  in 
those  days  would  sound  better,  if  omitted,  I  can  only 
say  that  my  "  hopeless  and  incurable  veracity  "  would 
not  permit  any  suppression  or  evasion  of  pertinent 
facts.  As  a  rule,  those  old-time  reverend  gentlemen 
seldom  undertook  to  preach  a  sermon  without  their 
preliminary  toddy.  Indeed,  it  was  considered  such  a 
necessity  that  when  my  father  commenced  preaching 
my  mother  received  the  following  injunction  from 
Grandmother  Stearns,  viz.,  "  Betsey,  never  allow 
Daniel  to  go  into  the  pulpit  until  he  has  had  his  rum." 
The  town  records  exhibit  the  quantities  of  wines  and 
liquors  required  for  installation  or  funereal  purposes 
in  those  godly  times. 

Although  I  was  born  in  Dorchester  on  Meeting 
House  Hill,  where  my  father  taught  school  in  1825, 
and  afterwards  lived  on  Cape  Cod  until  I  was  four- 

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LETTERS 

teen,  I  spent  a  portion  of  nearly  every  year  in  Lincoln, 
and  grew  up  familiar  with  the  primitive  conditions 
then  prevailing.  With  scarcely  an  exception,  all 
household  and  farming  implements  now  in  use  have 
either  been  invented  or  radically  changed  since  I  can 
remember.  There  were  no  friction  matches,  cooking 
stoves,  nor  furnaces,  no  horserakes,  mowing,  sewing 
nor  washing  machines,  in  fact,  hardly  anything  now 
considered  a  necessity.  Laborers  worked  from  sun 
to  sun  without  thinking  of  a  claim  for  shorter  hours, 
although  occasionally  one  was  made  for  longer 
rations. 

A  marked  distinction  between  farming  methods 
now  and  then  consists  in  the  substitution  of  horses 
for  oxen.  Formerly,  the  carting  of  heavy  loads  to 
Boston  was  done  by  oxen,  the  driver  trudging  all 
the  way  on  foot  beside  his  team.  When  I  was  six- 
teen years  old,  I  drove  with  oxen  a  load  of  wood  for 
sale  to  Boston.  Foolishly  rejecting  my  first  offer,  I 
waited  five  hours  for  another  and  lesser  one.  Be- 
cause of  this  delay,  it  was  "  sundown"  when  I  left 
the  city.  At  Brighton  Corner  I  drove  the  team 
under  a  shed,  and  went  into  a  "  victualling  cellar  " 
to  warm  myself  Unconsciously,  I  remained  so  long 
that  the  cattle,  becoming  impatient,  started  for  home. 
Consequently,  I  ran  two  miles  before  overtaking 
them.  We  reached  home  at  about  9  p.  m.,  the  trip 
lasting  twenty-two  hours.  Other  equally  brilliant 
experiences  during  my  intercourse  with  oxen  might 
be  related.  I  think  oxen  were  considered  more  hardy 
than  horses,  more  powerful  and  less  expensive.    On 

203 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

most  farms  the  ground  was  so  rocky  that  the  slower 
pace  of  oxen,  while  plowing,  saved  many  a  dig  in  the 
ribs  and  broken  plow.  Again,  when  oxen  became 
superannuated  they  could  be  fattened  for  beef,  while 
a  worn-out  horse  was  valuable  only  for  his  hide. 

During  my  farming  career  peach  culture  attained 
its  maximum.  I  am  confirmed  in  stating  that  one 
year  Lincoln  raised  more  peaches  than  all  the  rest 
of  the  State.  Their  excellence  of  quality  and  flavor 
has  never  been  surpassed.  They  had  their  delicious 
and  profitable  day.  Then  came  the  "  Yellows  "  and 
destroyed  them  all.  This,  together  with  the  advent 
of  the  railroad,  diverted  the  farmers'  attention  to 
raising  strawberries,  asparagus,  and  cucumbers  for 
pickles ;  also  from  butter  and  cheese  to  selling  milk 
to  the  milkmen  from  Lexington.  So  that  when 
Sandy  Pond  was  tapped  we  furnished  Concord  with 
water  and  Lexington  with  milk,  while  Lincoln  hill 
served  as  the  moral  and  physical  barrier  which  pre- 
vented the  two  fluids  from  mingling  in  that  cerulean 
quality  of  "  Richness,"  with  which  the  renowned 
Mr.  Squeers  of  Dotheboy*s  Hall  regaled  the  inmates 
of  that  classical  institution. 

Although  Hudson's  "  History  of  Lexington " 
traces  my  maternal  ancestry  to  the  time  of  Alfred 
the  Great,  when  the  Munroes  were  already  a  power- 
ful clan,  the  Lincoln  Munroes  were  the  descendants 
of  WiUiam  Munroe  of  Lexington,  who  was  one  of 
Cromwell's  prisoners  of  war,  sent  to  this  country  and 
sold  into  a  limited  slavery.  He  afterwards  bought 
his  freedom,  was  married  three  times,  and  became 

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the  father  of  thirteen  children.  Among  them  was 
my  mother*s  great-grandfather,  Benjamin  Munroe, 
who  was  one  of  the  twenty-two  persons  who  built  the 
first  meeting-house  in  Lincoln  for  both  sacred  and 
secular  convocations.  I  have  seen  town-meetings 
held  in  the  Dennis  meeting-house  —  and  an  elec- 
tion of  militia  officers  conducted  from  the  '  Deacon's 
Seat/  under  the  pulpit  front  in  the  Lincoln  meeting- 
house. Colonel  William  Foster,  who  presided,  still 
lives  in  Waltham,  aged  eighty-nine. 

The  house  in  which  my  mother  was  born,  in  the 
East  District,  was  situated  near  a  spring,  now  shaded 
by  a  copse  of  willows  growing  from  a  stake  driven 
into  the  ground  by  myself  about  sixty  years  ago. 
My  grandfather,  Isaac  Munroe,  moved  the  house 
nearer  the  highway,  and  lived  in  it  until  he  died, 
aged  eighty-four ;  after  which  my  father.  Rev.  Daniel 
M.  Stearns,  formerly  of  Dennis,  Mass.,  occupied 
the  place.  He,  dying  at  the  age  of  fifty-four,  left  my 
mother,  nee  Betsey  Munroe,  with  three  sons  and  a 
daughter,  myself  the  oldest  child.  The  others  died 
of  consumption  before  they  were  twenty-one.  Upon 
being  threatened  with  the  same  disease,  I  decided  to 
try  a  change  of  climate  ;  so  with  my  wife  and  mother 
we  removed  to  southern  Illinois  in  1857.  Thus 
ended  my  residence  in  Lincoln.  Nothing  of  my  old 
home  remains.  It  was  burned  years  ago.  A  new 
road  runs  through  the  old  farm,  avoiding  the  steep 
hill  down  which  I  have  taken  many  a  midnight  ride 
with  startling  velocity  in  my  big  wagon  on  the  way 
to  Boston  market.    My  horse,  apparently  afraid  of 

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THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

being  run  over  by  the  heavy  load,  would  not  budge 
at  any  other  rate  of  speed.  Had  not  the  animal 
proved  sure-footed,  how  far  I  might  have  been  pro- 
jected through  the  boundless  realms  of  space  still 
remains  to  be  computed. 

As  my  first  appearance  in  society  when  only  six 
years  old,  visiting  at  my  Grandfather  Munroe^s,  serves 
to  introduce  one  of  the  old-time  methods  of  social 
enjoyment,  it  may  have  appropriate  mention  here. 
Every  winter  it  was  incumbent  upon  each  family  to 
give  a  neighborhood  party.  All  the  neighbors  were 
invited.  Other  society  parties  consisted  of  congenial 
friends.  The  ladies  would  arrive  in  the  afternoon, 
and  the  gentlemen  would  come  to  tea  and  spend  the 
evening,  sometimes  remaining  as  late  as  nine  o*clock. 
At  early  candle-light  supper  would  be  served,  almost 
invariably  consisting  of  milk  toast  of  baker's  bread, 
—  then  styled  brickloaf,  more  because  of  its  shape 
than  of  its  consistency,  also  various  kinds  of  pies, 
preserves  and  cakes.  All  sat  around  the  room  hold- 
ing the  comestibles  in  their  laps,  —  a  ticklish  job  for 
the  men,  of  course.  On  this  occasion  I  was  to  pass 
around  the  cream  and  sugar,  on  a  little  waiter.  Alas 
for  juvenile  ambition,  I  upset  the  cream  upon  the 
floor !  Ordinarily,  in  such  cases  the  dog  was  called 
to  lick  it  up.  Consequently,  I  frantically  screamed, 
"  Call  Dick  !  Call  Dick  !  "  As  everybody  laughed 
heartily  at  my  mishap,  it  proved  the  most  hilarious 
episode  of  the  evening. 

As  a  farmer,  my  life  in  Lincoln  was  an  incon- 
spicuous  combination  of  rigid   economy,  frequent 

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Residence  of  Charles  Francis  AdamSy  Esq. 
(p.  229) 


LETTERS 

bereavement,  hard  work,  and  good  times,  I  always 
having  a  strong  inclination  toward  the  latter.  I  was 
an  ardent  Whig  as  long  as  the  party  lasted.  I  have 
an  impression  that  one  year,  1840,  Lincoln  voted  ^6 
Whig  to  3  Democrat.  It  was  frequently  near  that 
proportion.  I  played  the  big  fiddle,  and  afterward 
the  organ,  which  Mr.  Charles  L.  Tarbell  and  my- 
self purchased  for  the  Unitarian  Society ;  and  a  sav- 
age specimen  of  a  crude  reed  organ  it  was,  to  be  sure. 
I  officiated  as  constable  one  year,  and  as  moderator 
one  afternoon,  rendering  such  peculiar  and  complete 
satisfaction  that  I  was  never  solicited  to  serve  in 
either  capacity  again.  As  secretary  of  the  Lyceum 
for  several  years,  I  posted  notices  each  Sunday  in 
winter,  that  on  Tuesday  evening  a  lecture  might  be 
expected.  Occasionally  it  so  remained.  Before  the 
town-hall  was  erected,  the  Lyceum  was  conducted 
in  the  Centre  schoolhouse,  where  came  many  such 
eminent  lecturers  as  Emerson,  Thoreau,  and  others. 
Some  sessions  of  the  Lyceum  were  devoted  to 
debates,  which  pleased  those  as  young  as  myself 
better  than  lectures.  Sometimes  after  adjournment, 
a  number  of  young  men,  instigated  by  an  irrepres- 
sible yearning  for  supplemental  knowledge,  would 
remain,  poring  over  certain  unbound  volumes  of 
ancient  history,  quaintly  illustrated  with  highly  col- 
ored portraits  of  kings,  queens,  and  their  attendants, 
also  representations  of  antique  weapons  and  agricul- 
tural implements,  together  with  symbols  of  that 
romantic  affinity  between  hearts  and  diamonds  so 
ardently  indicated  by  the  magnitude  and  brilliancy 

207 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

of  engagement  solitaires.  This,  of  course,  entailed 
an  extra  expense  for  lights  and  fuel.  The  house  was 
lighted  by  a  few  small  tin  petticoat  lamps,  possibly 
burning  fifteen  cents*  worth  of  oil  of  an  evening. 
The  aforesaid  extravagance,  being  discovered,  was 
criticised  at  a  subsequent  meeting,  by  one  who  sar- 
castically proposed  that  in  addition  to  fire  and  lights, 
champagne  and  cigars  be  furnished.  Whereupon 
I  made  a  motion  that  the  gentleman  be  constituted 
a  committee  of  one  to  provide  such  refreshments  at 
his  own  expense.  The  proposition  was  adopted  with 
tumultuous  applause. 

As  the  following  is  an  historic  fact,  I  deem  it  ex- 
cusable to  claim  credit  for  having  devised  means  for 
establishing  the  first  high  school  in  Lincoln.  The 
town  having  built  a  two-storied  town-hall,  —  now 
Chapin's  store,  —  many  citizens  were  desirous  of 
opening  a  high  school  on  the  first  floor.  Although 
several  auxiliary  contributions  were  proffered,  the 
estimated  expense  was  greater  than  the  voters  were 
willing  to  assume.  As  each  district  was  tenacious 
of  its  proportion  of  the  school  fund,  the  enterprise 
"  hung  fire  *'  until  a  satisfactory  method  of  dividing 
the  amount  was  worked  out  by  the  subscriber  and 
proposed  by  him  in  town-meeting.  It  being  then 
and  there  adopted,  the  high  school  was  assured 
and,  not  long  after,  was  established. 

As  the  town  records  are  not  likely  to  corroborate 
the  aforesaid,  I  will  say  that  Brigadier-General  James 
Jones,  Jr.,  was  moderator  for  the  first  time  in  his  life 
when  the  matter  was  decided.    He,  being  unfamiliar 

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LETTERS 

with  the  parliamentary  courtesy  which  entitles  the 
originator  of  a  proposition  to  the  chairmanship  of  a 
resultant  committee,  failed  to  put  me  on  the  com- 
mittee to  which  the  business  was  entrusted.  There- 
fore my  name  might  not  appear  in  that  connection. 

But  when  we  young  folks  wanted  a  dancing  school 
in  the  town-hall,  the  combat  deepened.  A  number 
of  very  excellent  people  who  had  danced  when  they 
were  young  had  "  lived  to  see  the  folly  of  it."  They 
therefore  objected  to  exposing  us  to  a  similar  disas- 
trous experience.  As  noticeably  they  had  emerged 
from  the  ordeal  in  such  fine  condition,  we  decided 
we  would  risk  the  consequences.  The  matter  was 
vigorously  contested  in  several  town-meetings  with- 
out our  securing  permission  to  use  the  hall.  Where- 
upon, I  drew  up  a  paper  as  follows :  "  We,  the 
undersigned,  legal  voters  of  the  town  of  Lincoln, 
hereby  testify  that  we  have  no  objection  to  granting 
the  use  of  the  town-hall  for  dancing  parties  pro- 
perly conducted."  A  majority  of  the  voters  having 
signed  the  document,  the  Selectmen  let  us  have  the 
hall.    The  dancing  school  was  on  its  legs  right  away. 

The  Lincoln  district  schools  of  my  time  were  four 
in  number.  Their  curriculum  consisted  of  the  three 
Rs,  geography,  grammar,  and  United  States  history, 
together  with  a  class  in  natural  philosophy.  Also 
astronomy  from  a  book  entitled  "  The  Geography 
of  the  Heavens,"  wherein  we  were  quite  as  much  in- 
terested in  the  mythology  of  the  constellations  as  in 
the  statistics  of  the  stars.  Quite  a  smattering  of  Eng- 
lish literature  could  be  acquired  from  the  reading 

209 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

books  then  in  vogue.  We  had  some  such  eminent 
teachers  as  Dr.  Thomas  Hill,  afterwards  president  of 
Harvard,  Alexander  W.  Thayer,  many  years  United 
States  consul  at  Trieste,  also  many  other  undergrad- 
uates from  Harvard,  together  with  considerable 
equally  efficient  home  talent  of  both  sexes.  Indeed 
it  was  not  uncommon  for  farmers*  sons  and  daugh- 
ters to  step  directly  from  the  pupil's  bench  up  to  the 
teacher's  desk.  Others  took  preparatory  courses  of 
instruction  in  normal  schools,  academies,  etc.  I  know 
of  Lincoln's  furnishing  teachers  to  Concord,  Lexing- 
ton, Waltham,  Boston,  and  Charlestown  —  possibly 
to  other  towns.  I  attended  school  in  the  typical  old 
red  schoolhouse  in  the  East  District. 

At  that  time  fifty  full-blooded  Yankee  scholars 
regularly  assembled  in  that  old  "  shooting  gallery  for 
young  ideas.'*  Did  we  have  fun  ?  Echo  answers 
Fun.  Nearly  every  week  in  winter  we  had  a  party. 
Some  teachers  did  not  think  our  scholarship  was 
much  improved  thereby.  Others  joined  with  us,  and 
contributed  to  the  enjoyment.  That  venerable  edifice 
was  supplanted  by  a  white  one,  which,  in  turn,  has 
disappeared. 

Public  interest  in  the  schools  was  most  conspicu- 
ous on  Examination  Day,  when  a  full  attendance  of 
friends  and  parents  was  assured.  The  children  in 
their  Sunday  clothes  were  on  their  mettle  to  excel, 
and  the  teachers  were  on  tenter-hooks,  lest  something 
should  go  amiss,  as  everything  incorrect  or  super- 
ficial caught  a  chill  when  Mr.  Abel  Wheeler  cate- 
chised.  The  chair  on  which  Dr.  Stearns  always  sat 

210 


LETTERS 

when  the  East  District  School  was  examined  was  an 
heirloom  in  my  old  home  as  long  as  I  remained  in 
Lincoln.  I  wish  its  present  domicile  was  known. 
The  interchangeable  School  District  Library  proved 
a  very  useful  and  attractive  adjunct  to  the  schools. 
Though  not  of  Carnegie  proportion,  its  well-selected 
volumes  were  of  more  intrinsic  value  than  stacks  of 
the  ephemeral  literature  with  which  empty  heads  are 
now  content  to  stuff  themselves. 

Was  it  Dr.  Holmes  who  counselled  against  tracing 
one's  ancestry  too  remotely,  lest  the  family  line 
should  unfortunately  terminate  in  a  noose?  The 
Stearns  genealogists  discreetly  end  their  investigations 
with  a  certain  Archbishop  of  York,  which  sounds 
well  for  those  who,  like  myself,  are  of  clerical  descent. 
The  genial  doctor  also  advises  those  proposing  to  be 
born  to  advertise  about  sixty  years  beforehand  for  a 
pair  of  satisfactory  grandparents.  Having  selected 
my  ancestors,  as  aforesaid,  with  the  consequent  results, 
and  having  fortunately  located  them  in  Lincoln,  I 
remain 

Very  truly  yours, 
(Signed)  Edwin  M.  Stearns. 


HISTORICAL    NOTES 

ON   THE 
ILLUSTRATIONS 


HISTORICAL   NOTES   ON   THE 
ILLUSTRATIONS 

The   Town    Hall  Frontispiece 

See  "  Dedication  of  the  New  Town  House  in 
Lincoln,  Mass'tts,  May  26,  1892."  Boston,  T. 
R.  Marvin  &  Son,  1893. 

First  Parish  Church page  i 

See  "  Historical  Manual  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  in  Lincoln,  Mass."  Boston,  Tolman  & 
White,  1 872.  "  Proceedings  in  Observance  of  the 
One  Hundred  and  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the 
Organization  of  the  First  Parish  Church  in  Lin- 
coln, Mass'tts,  Aug.  2 1  St  and  Sept.  4th,  1898." 
Cambridge,  The  University  Press,  1899. 

The  Library 9 

See  "  Proceedings  at  the  Dedication  of  the 
Lincoln  Library,  Aug.  5th,  1884."  Cambridge, 
John  Wilson  &  Son,  1884. 

The  Unitarian  Church 9 

On  August  12,  1 841,  a  Unitarian  Congregational 
Society  was  formed  in  Lincoln  by  the  following 
persons :  — 

Leonard  Hoar  Charles  Brown 

Albert  G.  Spaulding  Ruflis  Morse 

Francis  Newhall  Francis  S.  Bemis 

George  H.  Wheeler  William  Foster 

Solomon  Foster  Albert  Hagar 
215 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

Daniel  M.  Stearns  Samuel  Thwing 

Charles  L.  Tarbell  William  Warren 

Cyrus  Brown  Isaac  Munroe 

Elijah  Fiske  William  F.  Wheeler 

Charles  Wheeler  Asa  Spaulding 

Abel  Wheeler  Abijah  Benjamin 
Leonard  Hoar,  Jr. 

In  November  of  the  following  year  the  Meet- 
ing House  was  finished  and  dedicated,  and  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Ripley  of  Waltham  was  asked  to  be  the 
minister. 

The  William  Hartwell  House  ....  24 
William  Hartwell  and  his  wife  Susan  came  to 
Concord  and  settled  on  this  farm  in  1636,  probably 
having  come  from  England  in  that  year.  This 
house,  either  the  whole  or  a  part  of  it,  is  the  ori- 
ginal house  that  he  built,  and  is  believed  to  date 
from  the  year  1636.  William  Hartwell  was  born 
in  1 600  and  died  in  1690.  It  was  near  this  house 
that  some  of  the  hardest  fighting  of  the  day  on 
the  19th  of  April,  1775,  occurred.  This  place  re- 
mained in  the  possession  of  the  family  until  1861, 
Mr.  Samuel  H.  Pierce  being  the  last  to  occupy  it. 

The  Samuel  Hartwell  House  .  .  .  .  38 
This  house  was  built  by  Samuel  Hartwell,  bro- 
ther or  son  of  William  Hartwell,  the  first  settler 
of  that  name  in  Concord,  and  was  occupied  by  the 
family  until  1875,  ^^-  John  R.  Hartwell  being 
the  last  owner. 

The  Farrar  Homestead       .     .     .     .     .     .     52 

The  front  and  main  part  of  this  house  was  built 
in  1692  by  George  Farrar  —  the  first  to  dwell  on 

2X6 


NOTES   ON    ILLUSTRATIONS 

the  place.  He  was  son  of  Jacob  Farrar  who  was 
killed  in  King  Philip's  war,  and  grandson  of  Jacob 
Farrar  who  came  to  Lancaster,  Mass.,  in  1642,  and 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  that  town.  They  were 
"descendants  of  Gualkeline  de  Ferrariis,  a  Norman 
of  distinction,  attached  to  William,  Duke  of  Nor- 
mandy, before  the  invasion  of  1066,  and  Henry 
de  Farrars  his  son,  who  was  the  first  of  the  family 
who  settled  in  England,  and  whose  name  is  on  the 
Roll  of  the  Battle  Abbey." 

Arnong  those  who  were  born  in  this  house,  and 
part  or  all  of  whose  life  was  spent  here,  have  been  : 

Samuel  Farrar,  who  in  1773  was  chairman  of 
the  first  Committee  of  Correspondence,  member 
of  the  first  Provincial  Congress,  and  took  part  in 
the  battle  at  Concord. 

Rev.  Stephen  Farrar,  who  was  the  first  minister 
of  New  Ipswich,  N.  H.,  and  who  served  there  more 
than  fifty  years. 

Hon.  Timothy  Farrar,  who  was  judge  of  the 
courts  in  New  Hampshire  for  forty-six  years,  be- 
ing appointed  Chief  Justice  of  the  Superior  Court 
in  1 802  ;  he  lived  to  be  one  hundred  and  one  years, 
seven  months,  and  twelve  days,  being  the  oldest 
person  buried  in  Mount  Auburn. 

Captain  Samuel  Farrar,  who  was  captain  of  the 
militia,  and  served  with  his  company  at  the  battle 
at  Concord,  helped  fortify  Dorchester  Heights, 
and  was  afterward  captain  of  a  company  of  Volun- 
teers who  enlisted  for  the  war,  being  present  at  the 
surrender  of  Burgoyne. 

Samuel  Farrar,  Esq.,  Harvard,  1797.  "Tutor, 
Harvard  College,  1 800-01 .  Settled  in  Andover  as 
217 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

lawyer,  1 80 1 .  Trustee  of  Phillips  Academy,  1 802- 
40.  Treasurer,  1803-40.  Librarian  of  Seminary 
^;^  years.  Trustee  of  Abbot  Academy,  1828-51. 
First  President  of  Andover  Bank,  1826-56.  Dea- 
con of  Seminary  church,  181 6-64.  Constantly  and 
thoroughly  identified  with  the  interests  of  the 
Academy  and  Seminary,  and  a  liberal  benefactor 
to  both;  superintended  all  the  buildings  for  the 
institutions  in  his  time;  conceived  the  plan  of  the 
*  Teachers'  Seminary.*"  (From  "Biographical 
Catalogue  of  Phillips  Academy.") 

Professor  John  Farrar,  LL.  D.,  professor  of 
Natural  Philosophy  and  Mathematics  in  Harvard 
College  for  about  thirty  years,  and  publisher  of  a 
dozen  college  text  books. 

George  Farrar,  a  lawyer  in  Charlestown. 

The  house  has  furnished  a  deacon  in  the  Lincoln 
church  for  one  hundred  and  forty-five  years,  and 
men  active  in  service  in  town  affairs.  The  road 
leading  past  the  house  was  originally  called  Sud- 
bury Way,  and  was  in  existence  in  1648.  The 
house  is  now  occupied  by  Miss  Mary  B.  Farrar 
and  her  brothers  Samuel  and  Edward  R.  Farrar. 
The    Garfield    House 80 

The  land  on  which  the  Garfield  house  stands 
was  purchased  of  Samuel  Tainter  by  Benjamin 
Garfield  in  1702-03.  The  farm  contained  one 
hundred  and  twenty  acres. 

In  his  will,  dated  May  22,  17 17,  he  gives  said 
land  to  his  son  Thomas  Garfield,  who  undoubt- 
edly built  and  occupied  this  house.  "  Thomas  Gar- 
field in  his  will,  dated  January  27th,  1752,  be- 
queaths to  his  son  Thomas  Garfield, '  all  my  lands 
218 


NOTES   ON    ILLUSTRATIONS 

and  buildings  in  said  Weston,  and  in  Concord 
adjoining  thereto/  This  house  is  situated  at  the 
end  of  a  grass-grown  lane  about  forty  rods  from 
the  high  road  leading  from  Lincoln  to  Waltham 
and  two  miles  from  the  centre  of  Lincoln.  It  is 
a  secluded  spot  of  great  beauty.  The  house,  a 
square,  unpainted,  two-story  house  with  a  great 
chimney  in  the  middle,  stands  surrounded  by  old 
elms  and  apple  trees,  in  a  tract  of  fertile  meadow, 
with  the  Lincoln  hill  in  the  distance."  The  house 
remained  in  the  possession  of  his  descendants  until 
1850.  It  is  now  owned  and  occupied  by  Mr. 
George  R.  Wheeler. 

(See  "Pres.  Garfield's  New  England  Ancestry," 
by  George  F.  Hoar.  Worcester,  Mass.,  Charles 
Hamilton,  1882.) 

The  Nelson  House 94 

The  first  Nelson  house  was  built  in  the  westerly 
part  of  Lexington  early  in  the  eighteenth  century 
by  Thomas  N elson,  who  came  from  Rowley.  Only 
the  cellar  hole  filled  with  field  stones  now  remains 
to  mark  the  site,  a  short  distance  east  from  the 
second  Nelson  house,  the  subject  of  this  sketch, 
which  is  still  standing.  Thomas  Nelson  probably 
built  this  house  also,  his  land  being  set  off  from 
Lexington  when  Lincoln  became  a  town  in  1754  ; 
his  son  Josiah  was  then  but  twenty-eight  years  of 
age.  The  house  was  thoroughly  built,  with  heavy 
oaken  frame  and  large  chimney  containing  a  brick 
oven  and  three  fireplaces.  It  stands  upon  the 
north  side  of  the  old  road  that  was  then  used  as 
the  main  highway  from  Boston  to  Concord,  and 
has  remained  in  the  possession  of  the  Nelson 
219 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

family  to  the  present  time,  though  it  has  been  un- 
occupied for  nearly  forty  years. 

The  following  is  a  tradition  as  handed  down  to 
George  Nelson,  the  grandson  of  Josiah  Nelson  :  — 

"  On  the  19th  of  April,  1775,  at  about  2  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  Josiah  Nelson,  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed a  minuteman  to  keep  watch  and  notify 
Bedford  when  the  British  spies  were  coming,  was 
awakened  by  his  wife,  who  told  him  that  she  heard 
voices  of  persons  going  by  and  that  he  had  bet- 
ter go  out  and  inquire  if  they  had  heard  any- 
thing about  the  British.  He  arose,  slipped  on  his 
breeches  and  hurried  out  without  shoes  or  hat,  and 
was  soon  among  a  party  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  horse- 
men who  were  riding  toward  Boston.  It  is  said 
that  Paul  Revere  was  a  prisoner  with  this  party. 
Josiah  Nelson,  thinking  they  were  some  neighbors 
going  to  market,  ran  in  among  the  horsemen  be- 
fore he  looked  up  to  make  sure  who  they  were, 
and  called  out,  '  Have  you  heard  anything  about 
when  the  Regulars  are  coming  out  ?  *  One  of  the 
men,  who  was  a  British  officer,  drew  his  sword  and 

said,  *  God you,  we  will  let  you  know  when 

they  are  coming,'  and  struck  him  on  the  head, 
cutting  a  gash  three  inches  long.  They  then  said, 
*  You  are  our  prisoner  and  must  come  along  with 
us,*  and  he  was  made  to  walk  between  the  sol- 
diers. When  they  were  a  short  distance  below  the 
Hastings  house  he  told  them  he  could  n't  walk  as 
fast  as  they  rode,  for  he  was  lame.  They  said  they 
could  n't  ride  as  slow  as  he  walked,  for  they  were 
in  a  hurry,  so  they  left  him  with  three  men.  When 
he  began  to  talk  with  these  men  he  found  they 
220 


Brendan 
Residence  of  Mrs.  George  Ropes 


NOTES   ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 

were  men  of  his  acquaintance,  Tories,  who  had 
been  to  Concord  to  show  the  spies  where  the 
ammunition  was  stored.  They  told  him  if  he 
would  go  home  and  not  light  a  light,  they  would 
let  him  go,  but  if  he  lighted  a  light  they  would 
burn  his  house  over  his  head.  He  went  back  to 
his  house,  lighted  a  candle  and  had  his  wife  bind 
up  his  head,  then  he  loaded  his  horse  pistols  and 
saddled  the  old  mare,  put  on  the  pistols  and  fol- 
lowed after  the  soldiers  toward  Lexington.  When 
he  reached  the  top  of  the  hill  just  west  of  the  town, 
he  heard  them  firing  on  the  Common.  He  knew 
then  that  the  Regulars  had  surely  come,  so  he  took 
the  road  to  the  left  and  rode  to  Bedford  to  notify 
that  town,  as  he  was  appointed  to  do.  During  that 
day  the  women  went  into  the  woods  and  stayed 
there  till  night." 

"  A  man  named  William  Thorning  was  hiding 
in  a  hole  in  the  field,  a  short  distance  west  of 
the  Nelson  house,  on  the  afternoon  of  April  19, 
1775.  When  the  British  in  retreat  passed  along 
the  road  opposite  where  he  lay  he  fired  into  the 
ranks.  A  volley  was  fired  in  reply,  the  bullets 
cutting  up  the  ground  about  him.  He  ran  for  the 
woods  but  was  met  by  the  flank  guard,  who  fired  at 
him,  but  he  was  not  hit.  After  the  British  had  gone 
along  he  came  out  from  the  woods  and  ran  up  be- 
hind a  large  boulder,  which  stands  just  west  of  the 
Nelson  house,  and  fired  into  the  ranks  again.'' 

There  is  a  tradition  that  two  British  soldiers 
were  buried  on  the  knoll  across  the  road,  southeast 
of  the  Nelson  house,  which  is  still  called  "The 
Soldiers'  Graves." 

221 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

The  Flint  House     . io8 

Thomas  Flint,  born  1603,  came  from  Matlock, 
Derbyshire,  England,  to  Boston  in  1635,  ^^^  ^*^" 
moved  to  Concord  in  1637.  He  settled  near  the 
middle  of  the  town  somewhere  along  the  river. 
He  was  a  representative  of  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  1638-41,  and  Governor's  Assist- 
ant (or  Councillor)  from  1641-53,  the  time  of 
his  death. 

The  following  entry  in  the  Records  of  the  Col- 
ony of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England 
under  the  date  of  May  28,  1661,  shows  the  esti- 
mation in  which  his  public  service  was  held :  — 

"  The  court  considering  that  Mr.  Thomas 
Flynt,  deceased,  served  the  Country  in  the  magis- 
tracy &  other  public  capacitjes,  &  some  whiles 
after  publicke  allowanc  was  payd  unto  the  ma- 
gistrates &  had  no  recompense  nor  any  graunt  of 
lands,  &  that  ye  sd  Mr.  Flynt  left  a  widow  & 
numerous  family,  many  whereof  were  in  minority, 
.  .  .  Judg  Meete  to  graunt  to  the  widow  of 
ye  deceased  Mr.  Flint  &  her  sonne  John,  Eight 
hundred  acres  of  land.  .  .  /' 

Ephraim  Flint,  son  of  Thomas  Flint,  born 
1642,  settled  in  the  part  of  Concord  now  included 
in  Lincoln,  and  was  the  owner  of  a  large  tract  of 
land.  The  bounds  of  a  portion  of  his  real  estate 
are  thus  given  :  — 

"  750  acres  of  upland  and  meadow,  more  or  less, 
bounded  on  the  South  East  by  the  town  bound- 
ing line ;  eastwardly  by  John  FarwelFs  land :  on 
the  North  by  Nath.  Stone  and  William  Hart- 
well's,  and  from  thence  to  the  South  end  of  the 
222 


NOTES   ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 

meadow,  called  ye  great  meadow,  adjoining  to 
upland  belonging  to  Sergeant.  Tho.  Wheeler : 
and  from  thence  by  a  straight  line  to  ye  great 
pond,  belonging  to  ye  sayd  Eph.  Flint,  and  from 
this  pond  to  Beaver  pond  by  the  brookes  run- 
ning out  of  sayd  ponds,  and  from  thence  by  a 
straight  line  to  ye  town  bound  line.  Feb.  25th, 
1680-81. 

J.  Buckley." 

This  farm  has  been  owned,  after  Ephraim  Flint, 
successively  by  his  nephew  Edward  Flint,  b.  1685, 
grandson  of  Thomas  Flint;  by  his  nephew 
Ephraim  Flint,  b.  17 13,  great-grandson  of  Thomas 
Flint;  by  his  son  of  the  same  name,  b.  1744;  by 
his  son  of  the  same  name,  b.  1782,  d.  1871  ;  by 
his  son  George  FUnt. 

The  original  homestead  on  this  land  was  on 
the  site  of  the  house  now  occupied  by  Miss  Julia 
A.  Bemis.  There  are  no  records  available  to 
show  when  the  site  of  the  present  homestead  was 
first  occupied,  or  when  the  present  house  was 
built. 
The  Dr.  Russell  House 122 

This  house  was  occupied  by  Dr.  Richard  Rus- 
sell, who  was  born  in  Charlestown,  Mass.,  and 
baptized  February  24,  1750-51.  "  He  served  an 
apprenticeship  at  the  tanner's  trade  with  Deacon 
Joshua  Brooks  in  Lincoln.  On  the  morning  of 
the  day  he  became  of  age  he  rose  early,  washed 
his  hands  thoroughly  and  made  a  vow  never  to 
put  them  into  a  tan  yard  again.  He  immediately 
commenced  the  study  of  medicine  and  subse- 
223 


THE   TOWN    OF   LINCOLN 

quently  practiced  in  Lincoln."  He  married,  July 
28,  1777,  at  Lincoln,  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Na- 
than and  Rebecca  (Adams)  Brown  of  Lincoln.  Dr. 
Russell  was  drowned  by  the  upsetting  of  a  boat 
in  Beaver  Pond,  August  12,  1796.  His  wife  sur- 
vived him  till  May  18,  1838. 

Dr.  Russell  had  nine  children,  the  youngest  of 
whom,  George,  born  September  23,  1795,  gradu- 
ated from  the  Harvard  Medical  School  in  1820 
and  practiced  medicine  here  for  a  number  of  years, 
also  occupying  this  house. 

After  Dr.  Russell  removed  from  Lincoln  Dr. 
Henry  C.  Chapin,  just  graduated  from  the  medi- 
cal school,  came  to  Lincoln,  and  in  1856  bought 
this  house.  Rapidly  winning  the  confidence  of 
the  people,  his  circuit  soon  came  to  embrace  sev- 
eral of  the  adjoining  towns,  and  the  testimony  of 
one  who  knew  him  well  is  that  no  night  was  so 
dark  or  stormy,  no  distance  so  great  and  no  weari- 
ness so  exhausting  that  he  failed  cheerfully  and 
promptly  to  respond  to  the  call  of  the  suffering. 
The  rich  and  the  poor  were  alike  the  objects  of 
his  conscientious  and  patient  care,  although  often 
in  the  case  of  the  latter  he  well  knew  that  no  com- 
pensation could  be  rendered.  This  ministry  of 
faithful  service  lasted  for  more  than  fifty  years, 
his  death  occurring  in  1896.  His  two  daughters. 
Miss  L.  Jennie  and  Miss  Elizabeth  Chapin,  now 
occupy  the  house. 
The  Foster  House 136 

Solomon  Foster  bought  this  farm  of  Benjamin 
Munroe  in   1784,  and   built  a  house  upon   the 
present  site,  into  which  he  moved  in  1785.     The 
224 


NOTES   ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 

house  was  remodeled  in  1841,  the  old  house  form- 
ing the  L  of  the  new.  The  place  remained  in  the 
possession  of  the  family  until  1891.  It  was  sold 
in  that  year  to  Mr.  John  B.  Sawin,  who  sold  it 
in  1893  to  Mr.  WilHam  S.  Briggs,  who  sold  it  in 
1897  to  its  present  owner.  In  1898  the  house  was 
again  remodeled,  a  part  of  the  original  homestead 
of  1785  being  preserved  in  the  present  house. 

The   Dr.   Stearns   House 150 

This  house  was  built  by  Dr.  Charles  Stearns, 
minister  of  the  town  from  1780  to  1826.  The 
house  was  substantially  built  with  unusually  well 
finished  interior.  The  tradition  is  that  Dr.  Stearns 
found  it  a  too  expensive  house  for  him  to  live  in 
with  his  growing  family,  —  he  had  eleven  children, 
though  all  did  not  live  to  grow  up,  —  so  that  he  felt 
obliged  to  sell  it.  Its  subsequent  owners  were 
Captain  Cole,  George  Weston,  Calvin  Smith,  and 
Cyrus  G.  Smith,  its  present  owner. 

The  Hoar  House 164 

The  pedigree  of  the  American  branch  of  the 
Hoar  family  begins  with  Charles  Hoare  of  Glouces- 
ter, England,  no  clue  to  his  parentage  having 
been  found.  His  son,  Charles,  was  sheriff  of 
Gloucester  in  1634.  He  was  a  man  of  large  wealth 
and  greatly  respected.  He  died  in  England  in 
1638,  and  his  widow,  Joanna,  came  to  this  country 
with  five  of  his  children  about  the  year  1640.  His 
son,  John,  was  the  ancestor  of  the  Hoars  who  set- 
tled in  Lincoln.  It  is  believed  that  he  married 
Alice  Lisle,  a  daughter  of  Lady  Alicia  Lisle,  about 
whom  there  is  interesting  history  connected  with 
the  time  of  Cromwell  and  James  11. 
225 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

His  grandson,  John,  the  great-grandson  of 
Charles,  Sheriff  of  Gloucester,  was  the  first  of  the 
family  to  settle  in  Lincoln,  then  Lexington.  Dur- 
ing the  French  and  Indian  war,  in  1748,  he  was 
taken  prisoner  and  remained  a  captive  among  the 
Indians  for  three  months.  His  son,  Samuel,  was 
born  in  Lincoln  in  1 743 .  He  was  a  lieutenant  in  the 
Revolutionary  War,  took  part  in  the  battle  of  Sara- 
toga, was  many  years  a  magistrate  of  Middlesex 
County,  representative  from  Lincoln  in  the  legis- 
lature, state  senator  and  member  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  in  1820.  He  married  Susanna 
Pierce,  daughter  of  Colonel  Abijah  Pierce  of  Lin- 
coln. It  was  said  of  him,  "  He  lived  all  the  beati- 
tudes daily."  He  built  the  house  now  standing 
near  the  centre  of  the  town  on  the  road  to  Weston, 
in  1 8 18,  from  timber  blown  down  in  the  great 
September  gale  of  18 15.  His  grandson,  Samuel 
Hoar  Pierce  (whose  father  changed  his  name  from 
Hoar  to  Pierce  in  181 1),  was  the  last  member  of 
the  family  to  own  the  house,  and  his  brother,  John 
H.  Pierce,  built  (in  1900)  the  colonial  house  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  road  on  land  belonging  to 
the  family  for  over  one  hundred  years.  Another 
grandson,  George  Grosvenor  Tarbell,  built  and 
gave  to  the  town  its  library. 

Of  the  children  of  Samuel  Hoar  his  son  Sam- 
uel became  the  most  prominent.  He  was  born  in 
Lincoln  in  1778,  brought  up  on  his  father's  farm 
in  the  east  part  of  the  town,  and  fitted  for  college 
by  the  Rev.  Charles  Stearns.  He  graduated  from 
Harvard  in  1802.  He  became  one  of  the  most 
eminent  lawyers  at  the  Middlesex  Bar.  He  mar- 
226 


NOTES   ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 

ried  the  daughter  of  Roger  Sherman  and  lived 
in  Concord,  where  his  sons,  Ebenezer  Rockwood, 
Edward  Sherman,  and  George  Frisbie,  were  born. 
Senator  Hoar  took  great  pride  in  saying,  "  My 
grandfather,  two  great  grandfathers,  and  three  of 
my  father's  uncles  were  at  Concord  Bridge  in  the 
Lincoln  company,  of  which  my  grandfather,  Samuel 
Hoar,  was  lieutenant,  on  the  19th  of  April,  1775." 
The  Smith  House 192 

This  farm  lies  in  the  westerly  part  of  Lincoln  on 
the  borders  of  Sandy  Pond,  whose  shore  it  follows 
for  a  fourth  of  its  circumference.  The  Pond  and 
its  brook,  which  flows  from  its  southeast  corner, 
have  been  distinguishing  bound-marks  in  the  farm 
deeds.  In  early  deeds  it  appears  as  the  Great 
Pond  to  distinguish  it  from  the  smaller  ponds 
about.  Its  mile  length  justly  entitles  it  to  that 
designation.  Next  it  is  called  Flint's  Pond,  from 
the  family  which  owned  the  land  eastward  from  the 
brook.  This  name  in  turn  gave  way  to  Sandy 
Pond,  which  was  suggested  by  one  of  its  dominant 
characteristics,  giving  to  the  fine  sheet  of  water 
more  individuality  than  could  come  from  any  at- 
tachment to  the  personality  of  a  man  or  group  of 
men,  and  permitting  it  to  develop  a  history  of  its 
own.  This  name  has  persisted,  and  is  the  com- 
mon appellation  to-day,  though  the  name  Forest 
Lake,  coming  from  another  natural  though  more 
general  characteristic,  has  had  some  prominence. 

"Beautiful  for  situation"  easily  applies  to  any 

such  location  as   distinguishes  this   farm.     Hill, 

plain,  and  water  give  variety  of  contour.    Forests, 

pastures,  meadows,  and  tilled  fields  give  added 

227 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

beauty  and  variety.  The  most  conspicuous  mark 
for  many  years  has  been  an  acre  of  ancient  and 
lofty  pines  on  a  steep  hillside,  overlooking  the 
farm  and  furnishing  a  landmark  for  all  the  coun- 
try around. 

The  location  of  the  house  argued  practical  sense 
and  an  appreciation  of  the  beautiful  on  the  part 
of  early  owners.  It  stood,  facing  the  south,  just 
below  a  sheltering  hillock  on  the  borders  of  the 
pond,  and  at  the  same  time  afforded  glimpses  of 
the  water  and  its  setting  in  two  directions.  The 
old  house  was  burned  in  1877  and  was  replaced 
by  the  present  structure. 

The  farm,  of  more  than  125  acres,  has  been  in 
the  Smith  family  for  five  generations.  Zacheriah, 
who  was  of  the  fifth  generation  from  Thomas 
Smith,  a  proprietor  in  Watertown  from  1637  to 
1693,  had  it  of  the  Dakin  family  in  1788.  It 
passed  from  Zacheriah  to  Jonas  in  1829,  and  from 
Jonas  to  Francis  in  1850,  and  its  active  interests 
are  now  in  the  hands  of  his  son  Charles  and  his 
grandson  Sumner.  It  was  in  the  Dakin  family 
for  three  generations.  Simon  had  it  of  Nathaniel 
Hobartin  1702.  It  was  deeded  to  Samuel  in  1773, 
and  passed  to  Samuel,  Jr.,  in  1775.  Nathaniel 
Hobart,  or  Hubbard,  was  apparently  the  only  one 
of  the  name  to  hold  the  land.  It  was  deeded  to 
him  by  Ebenezer  Prout  in  1700  and  1701,  and 
then  for  the  first  time  the  original  tract  appears  in 
Its  entirety.  The  old  farm  contained  some  800 
acres,  extending  from  the  "  Great  Pond "  to 
"  Beaver  Pond,"  and  with  it,  the  deed  says,  went 
one  eighth  of  the  common-land  of  Concord,  thus 
228 


NOTES   ON    ILLUSTRATIONS 

taking  us  back  to  the  old  English  custom  by  which 
one  might  hold  both  individual  property  and  an 
interest  in  common  or  undivided  land,  a  relic  of 
the  old  relation  of  chief  and  tradesman,  and  point- 
ing out  also  the  origin  of  our  New  England 
"commons."  The  farm  was  in  "the  Prout  fam- 
ily for  two  generations.  Timothy,  the  father  of 
Ebenezer,  was  the  first  of  the  family  to  hold  it. 
He  had  it,  in  167 1,  of  Peter  Bulkley,  a  London 
apothecary,  who  evidently  inherited  it  from  his 
father,  Peter  Bulkley,  the  first  minister  of  Con- 
cord. It  is  an  interesting  fact,  tending  to  show 
how  this  immediate  vicinity  was  populated  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  that  in  the  year  1686  the  In- 
dians deeded  to  Peter  Bulkley  and  another  a  large 
tract  of  land  in  another  part  of  the  town  of  Con- 
cord, and  in  this  connection  to  remember  that 
until  the  year  1754  the  history  of  Concord  in 
part  is  the  history  of  what,  after  that  date,  was 
the  town  of  Lincoln.  Beginning  with  the  deed 
of  Ebenezer  Prout  and  running  backward  to  at 
least  1698,  the  land  is  distinguished  as  Coble's 
farm,  but  whether  from  some  accidental  circum- 
stance, or  because  some  Goble  had  the  farm  be- 
fore Minister  Bulkley,  has  not  been  discovered. 

A  dozen  generations  have  lived  their  history 
into  the  farm.  It  could  tell  interesting  tales  if  we 
could  interpret  its  word.  We  are  to-day  influenced 
for  better  or  worse  by  what  these  earher  genera- 
tions did  or  left  undone. 
The  Adams  House 206 

This  house,  in  the  southwest  portion  of  the 
town,  overlooks  Fairhaven   Bay.     It  stands   not 
229 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 

far  from  the  Concord- Lincoln  line.  It  was  built 
by  Mr.  William  A.  Burnham,  previously  a  resi- 
dent of  Boston,  in  1890;  and  was  occupied  by 
him  and  his  family  during  the  summers  of  1891 
and  1892.  The  property  was  purchased  by  Mr. 
Charles  Francis  Adams,  previously  of  Quincy,  in 
May,  1 893,  and  first  occupied  by  his  family  as  their 
place  of  residence  in  the  autumn  of  1894. 

Originally  the  bulk  of  the  present  (1905)  hold- 
ing was  known  as  the  Baker  Farm,  and  Henry  D. 
Thoreau  devoted  a  chapter  of  his  Walden  to  it 
under  that  name.  The  farm  seems  to  have  been  a 
part  of  the  original  Concord  township  bordering  on 
Fairhaven  Bay,  and  adjoining  the  Bulkeley  grant 
on  the  east  and  the  Stow  grant  on  the  south,  but 
not  itself  allotted  in  bulk.  It  passed  into  the  hands 
of  the  Baker  family  about  1740,  and  was  held  by 
that  family  through  four  generations,  and  until 
sold  to  Mr.  Burnham,  in  1888.  The  old  Baker 
homestead,  built  about  1740,  and  facing  the  origi- 
nal road  from  Concord  to  Sudbury,  still  stands 
near  the  entrance  to  the  avenue  leading  to  the  more 
modern  house. 

A  portion  of  the  Baker  farm,  bordering  on  Fair- 
haven  Bay,  was  known  as  Pleasant  Meadow,  and 
is  referred  to  as  such  by  Thoreau.  Mr.  Burnham 
so  called  the  place.  That  name  not  appealing  to 
Mr.  Adams,  who  subsequently  added  considerable 
tracts  of  woodland  to  the  original  farm,  the  entire 
holding  was  called  by  him  Birnam  Wood. 
The  Paul  Revere  Tablet 11^1, 

It  has  always  been  a  well-established  historical 
fact  that,  in  the  early  morning  hours  of  April  1 9, 
230 


NOTES   ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 

1775,  Colonel  Paul  Revere,  on  his  celebrated  ride 
from  Charlestown  through  Lexington  on  the  way 
to  Concord,  was  stopped  within  Lincoln  limits. 
He  there  encountered  a  mounted  British  patrol, 
and  was  by  it  detained,  proceeding  no  farther. 
The  exact  spot  where  this  occurred  is  not  fixed 
either  as  matter  of  record  or  by  tradition.  Among 
the  people  of  Lincoln,  however,  especially  those 
living  in  the  vicinity  of  the  North  road,  there 
had  long  been  a  feeling  that  the  town  should  pro- 
vide some  suitable  memorial  of  the  event.  Mr. 
Lorenzo  E.  Brooks  especially  interested  him- 
self, and  an  article  relating  to  the  matter  was  at 
his  instance  inserted  in  the  warrant  for  the  Annual 
Town  Meeting  of  1895.  (Article  XVII.)  No 
action  was  then  taken  upon  it.  Two  years  later 
the  selectmen  referred  to  the  subject  in  their  Re- 
port. (Town-book,  1 897-98,  p.  36.)  They  said 
that  while  it  might  "  not  be  absolutely  certain 
where  the  exact  spot  is,  the  erection  of  said  tablet 
should  be  made  in  accordance  with  the  best  infor- 
mation possible."  The  matter  was  accordingly 
again  brought  before  the  town,  and,  at  the  ad- 
journed meeting  of  April  7,  1897,  the  sum  of  one 
hundred  dollars  was  appropriated  to  be  expended  by 
the  Public  Improvement  Committee  in  procuring 
and  erecting  "  a  monument,  with  a  suitable  inscrip- 
tion thereon  to  designate  the  place."  (Town-book, 
1 897-98,  p.  19.)  The  state  highway  was  at  that 
time  in  course  of  construction,  and  the  Committee 
on  Public  Improvements  deferred  taking  any  ac- 
tion until  it  was  completed,  meanwhile  suggesting 
to  the  town  some  doubts  whether,  in  view  of  the 
231 


THE   TOWN   OF    LINCOLN 

uncertainties  of  the  case,  "a  memorial  at  the  point 
indicated  is  altogether  desirable."  (Town-book, 
1897-98,  p.  66.)  The  wish  of  those  advocating 
the  memorial  was,  however,  so  clearly  expressed 
by  Mr.  Brooks,  and  so  emphasized,  that  immedi- 
ately after  the  work  on  that  portion  of  the  state 
highway  was  completed,  the  committee  addressed 
itself  to  the  duty  assigned  to  it.  The  exact  lo- 
cality, as  nearly  as  it  could  be  ascertained,  had 
first  to  be  fixed.  The  Rev.  Edward  G.  Porter, 
formerly  pastor  of  the  Lexington  church,  was  on 
this  point  the  best  informed  authority.  His  as- 
sistance was  asked,  and,  in  May,  1898,  the  com- 
mittee, in  company  with  Mr.  Porter,  made  a  thor- 
ough examination  of  the  ground.  They  found 
that,  since  1775,  the  road  east  of  the  point  gen- 
erally designated  as  that  where  Revere  and  his 
companions  were  halted,  had  been  re-located,  and 
the  lower  land  north  of  the  road  bore  marks  of 
considerable  change,  as  the  result  of  drainage  and 
cultivation.  By  following  the  course  of  the  origi- 
nal road,  and  careful  examination  of  the  neigh- 
boring ground,  it  became  apparent,  however,  where 
a  patrol  sent  on  such  a  military  errand  would 
unquestionably  have  posted  itself  This  locality, 
concerning  the  correctness  of  which  it  could  be  a 
question  of  only  a  few  yards  at  most,  was  accord- 
ingly selected  as  the  site  for  the  memorial.  The 
stone  to  which  the  bronze  tablet  is  bolted  is  Quincy 
granite.  It  was  put  in  position  April  18,  1899. 
(Town-book,  1898-99,  pp.  64,  6^,)  The  inscrip- 
tion on  the  tablet,  prepared  by  the  committee,  is 
as  follows :  — 

232 


The  Paul  Revere  Tablet 
(P-  230) 


NOTES  ON    ILLUSTRATIONS 

AT    THIS    POINT, 

ON    THE    OLD    CONCORD    ROAD    AS    IT    THEN    WAS, 

ENDED    THE    MIDNIGHT    RIDE    OF 

PAUL    REVERE. 

HE    HAD,    AT    ABOUT    TWO    o'CLOCK    OF    THE    MORNING 

OF    APRIL    19,    1775,    THE    NIGHT    BEING    CLEAR    AND    THE 

MOON    IN    ITS    THIRD    QUARTER,    GOT    THUS    FAR    ON    HIS 

WAY    FROM    LEXINGTON    TO    CONCORD,    ALARMING    THE 

INHABITANTS    AS    HE    WENT,    WHEN    HE    AND    HIS 

COMPANIONS,  WILLIAM    DAWES,  OF    BOSTON,    AND    DR. 

SAMUEL    PRESCOTT,    OF    CONCORD,    WERE    SUDDENLY 

HALTED    BY    A    BRITISH    PATROL,    WHO    HAD    STATIONED 

THEMSELVES    AT    THIS    BEND    OF    THE    ROAD.       DAWES, 

TURNING    BACK,    MADE    HIS    ESCAPE.       PRESCOTT, 

CLEARING    THE    STONE    WALL,    AND    FOLLOWING    A    PATH 

KNOWN    TO    HIM    THROUGH    THE    LOW    GROUND,    REGAINED 

THE    HIGHWAY    AT    A  POINT    FURTHER    ON,  AND  GAVE  THE 

ALARM    AT    CONCORD.       REVERE    TRIED    TO    REACH    THE 

NEIGHBORING    WOOD,    BUT    WAS    INTERCEPTED    BY 

A    PARTY    OF    OFFICERS    ACCOMPANYING    THE    PATROL, 

DETAINED    AND    KEPT    IN     ARREST.       PRESENTLY 

HE    WAS    CARRIED    BY    THE    PATROL    BACK 

TO    LEXINGTON,    THERE    RELEASED,    AND    THAT 

MORNING    JOINED    HANCOCK   AND    ADAMS. 

THREE    MEN    OF    LEXINGTON,    SANDERSON, 

BROWN    AND    LORING,    STOPPED    AT    AN    EARLIER 

HOUR    OF    THE    NIGHT    BY    THE    SAME    PATROL, 

WERE    ALSO    TAKEN    BACK    WITH    REVERE. 


ROLL  OF  SOLDIERS 


ROLL    OF   SOLDIERS 


REVOLUTIONARY  WAR 


List  of  a  company  of  minute-men  under  the  command  of  Captain 
William  Smith  in  Colonel  Abijah  Peirce's  regiment  of  minute- 
men,  who  entered  the  service  April  19,  1775:  — 


Abbott,  Joseph 
Abbott,  Nehemiah 
Adams,  Abel 
Adams,  Joel 
Baker,  Jacob,  Jr. 
Baker,  James 
Baker,  Nathaniel 
Billings,  Daniel 
Billings,  Nathan 
Billings,  Timothy 
Blodgett,  Thomas 
Brooks,  Benjamin 
Brooks,  Joshua,  Jr. 
Brown,  Daniel 
Brown,  Ebenezer 
Brown,  Nathan,  Jr. 
Child,  Daniel 
Child,  Joshua,  Jr. 
Dakin,  Samuel,  Jr. 
Farrar,  Humphrey 


Farrar,  Samuel 
Fiske,  David 
Foster,  Jacob 
Gage,  Jonathan 
Gage,  Isaac 
Gearfield,  John 
Gove,  Nathaniel 
Harrington,  Daniel 
Hartwell,  Isaac 
Hartwell,  John 
Hartwell,  Samuel 
Hoar,  Samuel 
Hosmer,  Daniel 
Hosmer,  William 
Mason,  Elijah 
Mason,  Joseph 
Mead,  Abijah 
Munroe,  Abijah 
Parks,  Abraham 
Parks,  Ebenezer 


Parks,  James 
Parks,  John 
Parks,  Jonas 
Parks,  Willard 
Parks,  William 
Peirce,  Abraham 
Peirce,  Joseph 
Reed,  Artemas 
Smith,  Jesse 
Smith,  Jonathan 
Smith,  William 
Stone,  Gregory,  Jr. 
Tidd,  Nathan 
Thorning,  John 
Wellington,  Elijah 
Wesson,  John 
Wesson,  John,  Jr. 
Wheat,  Joseph 
Wheeler,  Enos 
Whitney,  Solomon 


List  of  a  company  of  militia  commanded  by  Captain  John  Hartwell 
in  Colonel  Eleazar  Brooks's  regiment,  called  down  for  the  fortify- 
ing of  the  Dorchester  Hills,  March  4,  1776:  — 


Abbott,  Joseph 
Abbott,  Nehemiah 
Adams,  Abel 
Adams,  Bulkley 


Adams,  Edward 
Adams,  James 
Bacon,  Noah 
Baker,  Amos 

237 


Baker,  Nathaniel 
Billings,  Daniel 
Billings,  Joseph 
BiUings,  Timothy 


THE   TOWN    OF    LINCOLN 


Bond,  Samuel 
Bowman,  Edmund 
Brooks,  Ephraim 
Brooks,  Ephraim,  Jr. 
Brooks,  Joshua 
Brooks,  Noah 
Brooks,  Stephen 
Brooks,  Timothy 
Brown,  Daniel 
Brown,  Ephraim 
Brown,  Nathan 
Child,  Abel 
Child,  Amos 
Child,  Elisha 
Child,  Joshua 
Dakin,  Samuel 


Farrar,  Humphrey 
Farrar,  Samuel 
Foster,  Jacob 
Foster,  Jonathan 
Flint,  Ephraim 
Hartwell,  Isaac 
Hart  well,  John 
Hartwell,  Samuel 
Hoar,  Samuel 
Lander,  John 
Mason,  Jonas 
Middlesex,  Salem 
Miles,  James 
Munroe,  Abijah 
Munroe,  Isaac 
Parks,  Benjamin 


Parks,  Eleazar 
Parks,  Isaac 
Parks,  Josiah 
Parks,  Willard 
Pierce,  Isaac 
Pierce,  Joseph 
Pierce,  Joseph,  Jr. 
Savage,  Jube 
Stone,  Gregory 
Stone,  Joshua 
Stone,  Timothy 
Tidd,  Nathan 
Weston,  Nathan 
Wheat,  Joseph 
Wheeler,  Enos 
Willington,  Elisha 


List  of  men  who  served  at  other  times  in  the  war  for  a  longer  or 
shorter  period:  — 


Abbott,  Abiel 
Abbott,  Joseph,  Tr. 
Adams,  Amos 
Adams,  Asa 
Adams,  James,  Jr. 
Adams,  Joel 
Adams,  Joseph 
Allen,  Phineas 
Avery,  Samuel 
Bacon,  Joseph 
Bacon,  Samuel 
Baker,  Samuel 
Billings,  Abel 
Billings,  Israel 
Billings,  Joseph,  Jr. 
Billings,  Nathan 
Bond,  Jonas 
Bond,  William 
Brooks,  Aaron 


Brooks,  Abner 
Brooks,  Benjamin 
Brooks,  Daniel 
Brooks,  Eleazer 
Brooks,  Joshua,  Jr. 
Brooks,  Levi 
Brooks,  Noah 
Brooks,  Stephen 
Brooks,  Timothy 
Brown,  Benjamin 
Brown,  Ebenezer 
Brown,  Joseph 
Brown,  Timothy 
Cabot,  Edward 
Child,  Daniel 
Colborn,  Joseph 
Colborn,  Nathaniel 
Conant,  John 
Farrar,  Daniel 
238 


Farrar,  Samuel 
Farrar,  John 
Farrar,  Nehemiah 
Farrar,  Zebediah 
Flint,  John 
Gage,  Isaac 
Gage,  Jonathan 
Garfield,  Abraham 
Garfield,  John 
Gove,  John 
Hagar,  John 
Harrington,  Daniel 
Hoar,  Brister 
Hoar,  Leonard 
Hoar,  Samuel 
Knowlton,  Jeremiah 
Lawrence,  William,  Jr. 
Mason,  Elijah 
Mason,  Joseph,  Jr. 


ROLL   OF    SOLDIERS 


Mathias,  Abner 
Mead,  Abijah 
Mead,  Jonathan 
Mead,  Tilly 
Merriam,  James 
Munroe,  Josiah 
Munroe,  Micah 
Nelson,  Josiah 
Page,  Jonathan 
Parker,  Joseph 
Parks,  Aaron 
Parks,  David 
Parks,  James 
Parks,  John 


Parks,  Jonas 
Parks,  Joseph 
Parks,  Leonard 
Pierce,  Abijah 
Pierce,  Abraham 
Pierce,  Jonas 
Reed,  Artemas 
Richardson,  Abner 
Robinson,  Keen 
Sharon,  Peter 
Smith,  Jesse 
Smith,  Jonathan 
Smith,  William 


WAR   OF    1812 


Thorning,  John 
Thorning,  William 
Tower,  Jonathan,  Jr. 
Weston,  Abraham 
Weston,  Daniel 
Weston,  John 
Weston,  Jonathan 
Weston,  Zechariah 
Wheeler,  Edmund 
Wheeler,  John 
Whitney,  Solomon 
Whittaker,  Jonas 
Willington,  Elijah 


Babcock,  Rufus 
Billings,  John 
Brownell,  John 
Coburn,  James  W. 
Davis,  David  A. 


Esty,  Stephen 
Hayden,  Artemas 
Hoar,  Leonard,  Jr. 
Hoar,  William 


Jones,  William 
Miller,  James 
Nelson,  John 
Weston,  Daniel 


CIVIL   WAR 


Aitkins,  John 
Bemis,  Frank  E. 
Brov^^n,  Francis  C. 
Buckley,  John 
Bussey,  Benjamin  F. 
Calvey,  George  B. 
Cousins,  Nathaniel  F. 
Deering,  Eugene 
Freeman,  James  B. 
Fulsom,  George  W. 
Gay,  Howard  E. 
Golding,  James  H. 
Gorman,  Stephen 
Graves,  Ezekiel  E. 


Green,  Henry  C. 
Hartshorn,  Geo.  A. 
Hayden,  James  F. 
Hayden,  Thomas  W. 
Haynes,  Daniel  F. 
Haynes,  Edward 
Hill,  James 
Hoar,  Franklin 
Jenkins,  Silas 
Johnson,  Albert 
Jones,  Franklin 
Linaugh,  Thomas 
Messer,  William 
Parker,  Thomas  J 

239 


Phillips,  James  A. 
Russell,  Isaac 
Sherman,  Geo.  E. 
Smith,  Jabez 
Snell,  Charles  E. 
Stone,  Cornelius 
Stone,  Edward 
Tasker,  John 
Walker,  James  A. 
Warren,  Henry 
Washburn,  Albert 
Wellington,  Elijah  J 
West,  James  E. 
Weston,  Geo.  F. 


THE   TOWN   OF   LINCOLN 


SPANISH   WAR 

Brooks,  Wallace  M.    Foreman,  Charles  F.    Moller,  Joseph  V. 
Corrigan,  James  Hart,  Joseph  S.  Snelling,  Howard 

Dempsey,  John  J. 

Note.  —  The  lists  of  soldiers  who  served  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  War  of 
1 812,  and  the  Civil  War  are  taken  from  William  F.  Wheeler's  carefully  prepared 
lists  in  his  sketch  of  Lincoln  in  the  "  History  of  Middlesex  County,"  compiled  by 
Hurd,  Vol  II. 

Information  concerning  the  soldiers  who  served  in  the  Spanish  War  can  be  ob- 
tained at  the  Adjutant  General's  office  in  the  State  House. 


Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton  dr*  Co. 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 


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